AN  ARGUMENT  FOR  A BILL 


to  provide  for 

Original  Assessments 

and  tHe 

Correction  of  Original  Assessments 

of 

Real  and  Personal  Property 


and  the  creation  of  the  offices  of 


CITY  BOARDS  OF  ASSESSORS 
COUNTY  ASSESSOR 
COUNTY  TAX  APPEAL  JURIES 


Original  Assessments 

and  the 

Correction  of  Original  Assessments 

of 

Real  and  Personal  Property 


AN  ARGUMENT 

In  Support  of  a Bill  to  provide  for  Original  Assessments  of  Real  and 
Personal  Property,  and  for  the  Correction  of  all  Original  Assess- 
ments of  such  Property,  by  whomever  made,  and  to 
repeal  certain  sections  of  the  General  Code 

By 


ALLEN  R.  FOOTE 


President,  Ohio  State  Board  of  Commerce 
President,  International  Tax  Association 


Published  by  the 

OHIO  STATE  BOARD  OF  COMMERCE 
COLUMBUS 


3 -^t) 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I.  Page 

The  determination  of  the  taxable  value  of  property  is  a professional  and 

judicial,  not  a legislative  function 5 

Experience  is  the  factor  of  highest  value 6 

Ample  compensation.  Continuous  employment 7 

The  fundamental  purposes  of  assessing  property  for  taxation 7 

Undervaluation  is  the  cause  of  nearly  all  injustice  in  taxation 9 

County  boards  of  equalization  confirm,  they  do  not  correct,  undervalua- 
tions. All  county  boards  of  equalization  should  be  abolished 10 

The  state  board  of  equalization  confirms,  it  cannot  correct,  undervalua- 
tions. It  should  be  abolished 11 


PART  II. 

Chaotic  condition  of  assessment  work . . : 13 

Quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property;  their  election  and  term  of  service  13 
Conditions  under  which  quadrennial  assessors  have  done  their  work 

This  office  should  be  abolished 14 

Annual  assessors  of  personal  property 16 

All  personal  property  is  never  discovered  nor  fully  valued.  The  office 

of  annual  assessor  of  personal  property  should  be  abolished 17 

City  boards  of  review  and  equalization.  All  such  boards  should  be 

abolished 18 

County  boards  of  review  and  equalization.  All  such  boards  should 
be  abolished 18 


PART  III. 

The  present  condition  of  assessment  work 20 

The  assessment  of  personal  property  is  a farce 21 

What  will  taxpayers  do? 21 

What  taxpayers  can  do.  A permission  to  increase  taxes.  A tax  rate 
of  less  than  one  per  cent 22 


Assessments  cannot  be  corrected  in  time  for  the  1911  tax  list.  Tax  lists 
should  be  completed  on  the  following  dates: 

Taxing  districts,  first  Monday  in  July; 

Counties,  first  Monday  in  August; 

State,  first  Monday  in  October. 

Tax  payable  one-half  in  December,  1911,  one-half  in  June,  1912 23 

3 


PART  IV.  Page 

The  old  machinery  to  be  discarded 25 

The  new  machinery  to  be  installed:  City  Boards  of  Assessors,  County 

Assessors,  County  Tax  Appeal  Jury 25 

County  tax  appeal  juries 27 

Taxpayers’  right  to  protest 27 

Taxpayers’  right  of  appeal: 

1.  County  tax  appeal  jury; 

2.  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio; 

3.  Common  pleas  court. 

Decision  of  common  pleas  court  final 28 

Assessors  to  defend  assessments 28 

Taxes  to  be  paid  when  due;  refund  of  excess  taxes 29 

No  abatement  or  refund  of  taxes  to  be  allowed  except  by  decision  on 

protest 29 

Results  expected 29 

PART  V. 

Making  the  1911  tax  list 31 

The  completion  of  the  1911  tax  list  must  be  forced.  How  this  is  to  be 

done 31 

Protests  and  corrections 32 

No  injustice  to  taxpayers  will  result  from  forcing  the  tax  lists  as  pro- 
posed  33 

By  forcing  the  tax  list  as  proposed,  a great  gain  will  be  made  for  every 

taxing  district 34 

An  enormous  number  of  protests  expected 35 

The  burden  of  the  work  must  fall  on  1911 36 

The  advantages  and  the  prestige  of  a full-valued  tax  list  belong  to  1911 . . 37 
Conclusion 38 

APPENDIX. 

Full  text  of  a proposed  Bill  to  provide: 

1.  For  the  original  assessment,  and  the  correction  of  all  original 
assessments,  of  real  and  personal  property; 

2.  To  create  city  boards  of  assessors; 

3.  To  create  county  assessors; 

4.  To  create  county  tax  appeal  juries. 

Contents  of  sections  of  Bill 


40-41 


PART  I. 


THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  TAXABLE  VALUE  OF  PROPERTY  IS  A 

PROFESSIONAL  AND  JUDICIAL,  NOT  A POLITICAL,  FUNCTION. 

Two  fundamental  purposes  must  be  recognized  in  order  that 
there  may  be  a profitable  discussion  of  remedies  for  the  imperfec- 
tions of  the  administrative  features  of  the  tax  system  of  Ohio. 

First:  That  the  determination  of  the  taxable  value . of 
property,  real  and  personal,  is  a professional  and  judicial,  not  a 
legislative  function. 

In  the  commercial  world  the  valuation  of  property  for  business 
purposes  is  a daily  duty  performed  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  be 
accepted  as  a basis  for  credit  when  loans  are  sought,  or  for  pur- 
chase and  sale  when  ownership  of  the  property  involved  is  to  pass 
from  one  owner  to  another. 

It  ought  not  to  be  difficult  to  draw  from  the  records,  rules  and 
experience  involved  by  the  daily  necessity  of  determining  values 
for  such  purposes,  records,  rules  and  experience  equally  reliable 
and  satisfactory  for  determining  the  value  of  property  for  taxation. 
Failure  to  do  this  has  been  caused  by  the  lack  of  a clear  conception 
of  the  true  requirements  of  assessment  work. 

Second:  That  the  amount  of  money  to  be  raised  by  taxation, 
and  the  rate  of  the  levy,  are  questions  entirely  outside  the  juris- 
diction and  duties  of  assessors  of  real  and  personal  property, 
boards  of  review,  boards  of  equalization,  or  the  Tax  Commission 
of  Ohio. 

Such  assessors,  boards  and  officials  have  but  one  duty  to 
perform.  This  duty  is  to  discover  all  taxable  real  and  personal 
property  situated  within  their  respective  jurisdictions  and  to  list 
and  value  the  same  for  taxation  at  its  true  value  in  money. 

The  question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  valuations  made  by 
them  will  produce  a tax  list  large  enough  to  enable  any  taxing 
district  to  raise  a given  amount  of  money  by  levying  a 1%  tax, 
or  any  other  pre-determined  rate,  is  not  a proper  question  for 


5 


their  consideration  or  action.  The  amount  of  money  to  be  raised 
or  the  rate  of  the  tax  levy  are  not  factors  that  can  properly  be 
taken  into  consideration  in  determining  the  taxable  value  of  any 
property  at  its  true  value  in  money. 

EXPERIENCE  IS  THE  FACTOR  OF  HIGHEST  VALUE. 

The  fundamental  requirement  is  that  all  taxable  property  shall 
be  discovered  and  listed  for  taxation  at  its  true  value  in  money. 
This  requirement  cannot  be  properly  complied  with  unless  certain 
necessary  conditions  are  recognized  and  provided  for. 

Records  must  be  kept  and  continuously  corrected  for  each 
taxing  district,  showing  the  location,  description  and  ownership 
of  all  property  within  such  district,  supplemented  with  memoran- 
dums showing  changes  in  conditions  affecting  values. 

Rules  must  be  devised  for  determining  the  taxable  value  of 
all  parcels  of  land,  however'  divided,  owned  and  used,  and  the 
taxable  value  of  all  structures  and  improvements  situated  thereon. 
Such  rules  must  be  revised  from  time  to  time,  and  exceptions  to 
their  application  must  be  noted,  as  experience  may  demonstrate 
to  be  necessary. 

Persons  appointed  to  perform  the  duties  of  assessors  should 
be  selected  on  account  of  their  fitness  to  do  the  work  required. 
They  should  be  retained  in  office  as  long  as  they  perform  their 
duties  in  an  intelligent  and  satisfactory  manner  and  no  longer. 
Ordinary  mental  ability  combined  with  due  diligence  and  a desire 
to  do  well  whatever  is  to  be  done  are  necessary,  but  experience 
counts  for  more  in  securing  true  assessments  than  any  other 
factor. 

Any  business  man  who  gives  proper  consideration  to  the 
proposition  will  know  that  office  records  and  rules  cannot  take  the 
place  of  intelligent  field  work,  however  well  they  may  be  devised 
and  kept.  Such  records  and  rules  are  absolutely  necessary. 
When  well  devised  and  kept,  they  are  indispensable  aids  to  correct 
judgement.  But  no  such  rules  can  have  universable  application 
or  enable  the  public  to  dispense  with  the  services  of  men  competent 
to  apply  them  with  the  discretion  imperatively  demanded  by 
dissimilar  and  changing  conditions  as  they  actually  exist  at  any 
given  time. 


6 


In  the  case  of  buildings,  neither  the  cost  of  construction  nor 
the  age  of  a building  is  an  infallible  index  to  its  value.  Rules  are 
necessary  to  intelligent  valuations,  but  they  cannot  be  substituted 
for  the  judgment  of  an  experienced  assessor.  No  system  of 
allowing  for  depreciation  by  zones  can  enable  a clerk  in  an  office 
to  value  buildings  correctly.  An  assessor  who  knows  the  condi- 
tions, and  who  knows  how  to  make  valuations,  must  personally 
inspect  the  buildings  and  other  structures  and  judge  of  the  amount 
that  should  be  allowed  for  age,  obsolecence  and  changes  in  sur- 
rounding conditions.  In  such  work  experience  is  the  factor  of 
highest  value. 

AMPLE  COMPENSATION,  CONTINUOUS  EMPLOYMENT. 

To  become  expert  in  keeping  necessary  records,  making  rules 
and  developing  ability  to  form  correct  conclusions,  an  assessor 
must  devote  himself  to  his  work  and  develop  it  into  a profession. 
To  enable  him  to  do  this,  his  compensation  must  be  ample  and  he 
must  be  permitted  to  hold  office  continuously  by  right  of  his 
service  record. 

' - It  is  obviously  absurd  to  employ  inexperienced  men  to  do 
special  work,  which  must  be  done  every  year,  discharge  them  and 
again  employ  other  inexperienced  men  to  do  the  same  work  for 
the  next  fiscal  period. 

The  people  cannot  gain  the  advantages  of  experience  unless 
they  retain  assessors  in  office  long  enough  to  enable  them  to 
acquire  it,  and  then  retain  them  in  service  long  enough  after  that 
to  secure  the  benefit  of  the  experience  gained. 

■ j The  selection  of  assessors  by  election  is  a misapplication  of  the 
true  function  of  popular  government. 

The  appointment  of  assessors  for  short  terms  is  a violation  of 
the  requirements  of  efficient  administration. 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PURPOSES  OF  ASSESSING  PROPERTY  FOR 
TAXATION. 

The  fundamental  purposes  of  assessing  property  for  taxation 
are: 

First:  To  supply  a basis  on  which  to  compute  a tax  rate 
necessary  to  raise  the  amount  of  money  required. 


7 


Second:  To  determine  the  portion  of  the  total  tax  which  each 
taxpayer  must  pay. 

The  total  of  the  tax  list  and  the  total  amount  of  money  to  be 
raised  determine  the  tax  rate.  When  property  is  undervalued 
the  total  of  the  tax  list  is  correspondingly  decreased  and  the 
tax  rate  is  correspondingly  increased.  This  may  be  done  without 
injustice  to  any  one. 

Injustice  results  from  unequal  valuations,  not  from  the  tax 
rate.  Unequal  valuations  are  as  great  a cause  of  injustice  when 
the  standard  of  valuation  is  fifty  per  cent,  of  full  value  as  it  is 
when  the  standard  is  true  value  in  money. 

Small  properties  are  invariably  valued  at  full  standard  value 
by  inexperienced  assessors,  but  very  large  properties  are  not, 
because  an  inexperienced  assessor  is  more  likely  to  make  a reason- 
ably close  estimate  of  the  value  of  a small  property  than  he  is  of 
a large  one. 

Assessments  deliberately  made  by  experienced  and  capable 
men  always  equalize  values  by  raising  under-valuations  to  the 
adopted  standard.  Whenever  and  wherever  this  has  been  done, 
it  has  resulted  in  decreasing  the  proportion  of  the  total  tax  paid 
by  small  property  owners  and  increasing  the  proportion  paid  by 
large  owners,  and  this  will  be  the  result  when  this  work  is  properly 
done  in  Ohio.  For  this  reason,  the  demand  for  experienced 
expert  assessors ; for  permanent  and  continuously  corrected 
records  and  rules ; and  for  full  valuations  that  can  be  demonstrated 
to  be  correct  by  the  use  of  such  records  and  rules,  is  a demand  for 
the  relief  of  small  property  owners  from  over  taxation. 

When  property  is  unequally  valued  the  owners  of  property 
valued  at  the  highest  per  cent,  of  full  value  are  obliged  to  pay 
more  than  their  share  while  the  owners  of  the  property  valued  at 
the  lowest  per  cent,  of  full  value  are  favored  by  being  called  upon 
to  pay  less  than  their  share. 

Valuations  made  by  experienced  experts  who  are  capable  of 
determining,  and  do  determine,  the  true  value  of  all  property 
are  the  only  means  by  which  injustice  can  be  eliminated  from  the 
work  of  determining  the  proportionate  share  of  the  burden  of 
taxation  that  each  taxpayer  should  pay. 


8 


UNDERVALUATION  IS  THE  CAUSE  OF  NEARLY  ALL  INJUSTICE 
IN  TAXATION. 

It  is  obvious  that  under-valuation  is  the  means  universally 
employed  to  escape  the  payment  of  a just  portion  of  taxation. 

It  is  equally  obvious  that  the  amount  saved  by  one  taxpayer 
by  undervaluation  must  be  paid  by  some  other  taxpayer.  This 
fact  gives  every  taxpayer  as  direct  and  as  vital  an  interest  in  the 
assessed  value  of  all  property  situated  within  his  taxing  district 
as  he  has  in  his  own.  A person  should  be  willing  to  pay  his  own 
fair  share  of  the  burden  of  taxation,  but  he  should  protest  most 
vigorously  against  being  compelled  to  pay  taxes  for  other  people. 

The  most  effective  and  helpful  protest  against  such  injustice 
that  can  possibly  be  made  will  be  made  when  the  conditions 
under  which  assessment  work  is  done  are  reorganized  in  a way 
to  render  undervaluations  practically  impossible.  Such  a reorgan- 
ization is  now  imperatively  demanded. 

Assessors  elected  without  a due  regard  to  their  fitness  for  the 
work  to  be  done ; the  absence  of  well  kept  consecutive  records  and 
of  well  tested  rules ; short  terms  of  service  and  the  entire  lack  of 
efficient  supervision,  have  all  conspired  to  develop  and  confirm 
the  custom  of  making  undervaluations  as  a blind  method  of  taking 
security  against  injustice  on  the  part  of  individuals  and  collectively 
on  the  part  of  representatives  of  taxing  districts  to  escape  a por- 
tion of  county  taxation,  and  of  counties  to  escape  a portion  of 
state  taxation. 

Under- valuation  is  the  cause  of  nearly  all  inequalities  between 
taxpayers,  between  taxing  districts  and  between  counties.  Instead 
of  devising  an  administrative  system  intelligently  designed  to 
correct  this  evil,  and  thereby  remove  the  cause  of  injustice  to 
taxpayers,  the  General  Assembly  has  continued  the  method  of 
making  valuations,  and  of  correcting  the  same,  that  have  been  in 
use  since  the  adoption  of  the  present  state  constitution.  These 
methods  confirm  and  perpetuate  the  evil  of  undervaluation,  they 
cannot  correct  it. 


9 


COUNTY  BOARDS  OF  EQUALIZATION  CONFIRM,  THEY  DO  NOT 
CORRECT  UNDERVALUATIONS. 

The  only  way  in  which  the  evil  of  undervaluation  can  be 
exterminated  is  to  correct  the  valuation  of  every  undervalued  piece 
of  property  by  raising  it  to  true  value  in  money.  This  county 
boards  of  equalization  do  not  attempt  to  do.  They  seek  to 
eliminate  inequalities  between  taxing  districts,  not  between 
individuals.  They  deal  with  the  totals  of  tax  lists,  not  with 
individual  tax  lists. 

County  boards  of  equalization  do  their  work  by  considering 
the  relative  total  value  of  property  returned  for  taxation  by  the 
taxing  districts  within  their  respective  counties.  In  doing  this 
they  will  find  evidence  of  attempts  to  evade  the  payment  of  a 
portion  of  their  fair  share  of  county  taxes,  on  the  part  of  some 
districts,  shown  by  the  low  total  of  their  tax  list.  If  they 
inquire  into  the  cause  of  this  low  total,  they  find  that  the  assessors 
for  such  districts  considered  it  a patriotic  duty  to  save  their 
constituents  as  much  as  they  possibly  could  by  making  an  under- 
valued tax  list  which  would  help  the  people  of  their  district  to 
evade  the  payment  of  a part  of  their  fair  share  of  county  taxes. 
The  question  of  the  injustice  of  compelling  the  people  of  some 
other  district  to  pay  the  part  of  the  tax  they  thus  evade  does  not 
trouble  them.  They  do  not  permit  their  constitutional  oath  of 
office,  by  taking  which  they  solemnly  swore  that  they  would 
assess  all  property  at  its  true  value  in  money,  to  interfere  with 
their  determination  to  bring  down  the  amount  of  the  county  tax 
to  be  paid  by  their  constituents  to  the  lowest  possible  notch. 
Long  established  custom  justifies  assessors  in  doing  their  work  in 
this  way.  The  conviction  of  an  assessor  for  violating  his  oath  of 
office  is  an  unheard  of  and  as  improbable  an  event  as  the  convic- 
tion of  a taxpayer  for  perjury  committed  by  subscribing  to  a 
false  statement  in  signing  his  tax  list. 

The  problem  of  the  county  board  of  equalization  is  to  equalize 
the  totals  of  the  tax  lists  of  all  taxing  districts  in  their 
county  so  that  each  district  shall  pay  its  fair  share  of  the  county 
tax.  To  do  this  it  adopts  the  simple  expedient  of  determining  the 
average  percentage  of  true  value  at  which  the  property  in  each  of 


IO 


the  several  districts  has  been  assessed,  and  then  ordering  a cor- 
responding reduction  of  the  total  tax  list  of  those  districts  that 
have  been  assessed  above,  and  a corresponding  increase  of  the 
total  tax  list  of  those  districts  that  have  been  assessed  below, 
this  average  per  cent,  of  full  value.  To  give  practical  effect  to 
this  order,  it  is  necessary  to  increase  or  to  decrease  the  assessed 
value  of  every  parcel  of  property  situated  within  a taxing  district 
by  the  per  cent,  by  which  the  total  tax  list  of  the  district  has 
been  changed  by  order  of  the  county  board  of  equalization. 

Clearly,  this  makes  no  change  whatever  in  the  relative  values 
of  individual  parcels  of  property.  All  such  values  are  decreased 
or  increased  by  an  identical  percentage;  therefore,  no  under- 
valuation or  no  overvaluation  is  corrected.  But  every  such 
incorrect  valuation  is  confirmed  and  its  unfairness  increased. 

It  is  impossible  to  establish  justice  between  taxpayers  by  such 
a system.  The  only  equalization  that  should  be  permitted  is  the 
work  of  correcting  individual  assessments  by  decreasing  them 
when  above,  and  increasing  them  when  below,  the  true  value  in 
money  of  the  property  affected.  Such  equalization  work  will 
eradicate  the  evil  of  under- valuation.  It  will  establish  justice 
between  taxpayers.  It  will  render  county  boards  of  equalization 
unnecessary.  All  county  boards  of  equalization  should  be  abol- 
ished. This  statement  necessarily  includes  city  boards  of  equal- 
ization. 

THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EQUALIZATION  CONFIRMS,  IT  CANNOT 
CORRECT  UNDERVALUATIONS. 

The  state  board  of  equalization  is  removed  one  degree  further 
from  the  problem  of  the  original  assessment  of  individual  parcels 
of  property  than  are  county  boards  of  equalization.  Therefore, 
it  is  by  so  much  less  competent  to  determine  the  percentage  of 
true  value  at  which  property  in  all  taxing  districts  has  been 
assessed.  If  inequalities  are  to  be  discovered  and  corrected,  the 
search  for  them  and  the  work  of  correction  must  be  done  in  the 
district  where  they  occur.  The  farther  those  who  attempt  the 
work  of  discovery  and  correction  are  removed  from  the  scene  of 
original  assessment,  the  less  able  are  they  to  discover  original 
errors.  The  less  able  are  they  to  correctly  correct  such  errors. 


ii 


No  state  board  of  equalization  has  ever  attempted  to  correct 
errors  in  the  assessments  of  individual  pieces  of  property.  There- 
fore, no  state  board  of  equalization  has  ever  attempted  to  estab- 
lish justice  between  taxpayers. 

The  only  function  of  the  state  board  of  equalization  has  been 
to  prevent  counties,  regarded  as  taxing  districts,  from  evading 
the  payment  of  their  fair  share  of  the  state  tax  by  means  of  under- 
valued county  tax  lists.  In  performing  this  duty,  its  method 
of  procedure,  the  results  of  its  work,  and  the  method  of  giving 
practical  effect  to  its  orders,  has  necessarily  been  identical  with 
the  procedure,  results  and  methods  of  execution  described  for 
the  work  of  county  boards  of  equalization. 

In  looking  for  the  cause  of  undervalued  county  tax  lists, 
the  state  board  of  equalization  will  find  it  in  the  incompetency  of 
assessors,  accentuated  by  a misconception  of  duty  giving  a wrong 
direction  to  the  work  to  be  accomplished,  making  evasion  of  a 
fair  share  of  county  and  state  taxes,  by  means  of  undervaluation 
instead  of  the  establishment  of  justice  between  taxpayers,  the 
objective  point  of  their  assessment  work,  supplemented  by  an 
entire  absence  of  correct  records  and  rules,  and  encouraged 
possibly  by  an  “understanding”  obtained  from  the  county  auditor 
that  an  assessment  of — say  forty  percent  of  true  value  would  be 
“about  right.” 

The  state  board  of  equalization,  nor  any  other  administrative 
body,  has  never  been  properly  organized  and  equipped  to  deal 
intelligently  and  effectively  with  these  evils,  which  have  been 
permitted  to  exist  and  to  become  more  firmly  established  year 
after  year,  decade  after  decade,  since  the  system  of  county  and 
state  boards  of  equalization  was  established  fifty  years  ago. 

The  abolishment  of  this  system  is  now  imperatively  demanded 
in  order  that  the  conditions  in  which  it  has  culminated  may  be 
dealt  with  in  the  way  an  intelligent  conception  of  requirements 
necessary  to  promote  the  general  welfare  of  the  state  demonstrates 
must  be  done. 

To  do  this,  the  obstructions  to  progress  embodied  in  county 
boards  of  equalization  and  in  the  state  board  of  equalization  must 
be  removed.  These  boards  must  be  abolished. 


12 


PART  II. 


CHAOTIC  CONDITION  OF  ASSESSMENT  WORK. 

The  present  condition  of  assessment  work  is  chaotic.  No 
other  result  can  be  reasonably  expected.  A correct  assessment  of 
property  for  taxation  has  never  been  made  in  Ohio. 

However  the  work  of  assessing  real  property  was  done  at  the 
beginning  of  any  decennial  period,  the  experience  gained,  the 
records  made,  the  rules  adopted,  were  not  available  for  the  same 
work  which  had  to  be  done  for  the  next  decennial  assessment 
period.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  no  adequate  machinery  has 
ever  been  provided  for  correcting  inequalities  existing  in  the 
original  assessments,  and  the  other  fact  that  these  inequalities, 
instead  of  being  removed,  were  confirmed  by  the  work  of  county 
boards  and  by  the  state  board  of  equalization,  so  they  could  not 
be  corrected  during  the  decennial  assessment  period  of  ten  years, 
and  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  such  conditions  rendered  it  impos- 
sible for  the  quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property,  in  office  in 
1910,  to  make  a correct  assessment. 

QUADRENNIAL  ASSESSOR  OF  REAL  PROPERTY. 

Two  thousand,  five  hundred  and  eleven  (2,511)  assessors  of 
real  property  were  elected  in  November,  1909,  to  assess  all  real 
property  in  Ohio  at  its  true  value  in  money.  They  took  the  oath 
of  office  and  were  commissioned  to  commence  their  work  on 
January  15,  1910,  their  term  of  service  being  limited  by  law  to 
terminate  on  July  15,  1910.  Of  course,  a vast  amount  of  work  was 
not  completed  on  that  date.  By  means  of  a doubtful  construction 
of  the  law,  a large  number  of  assessors  have  been  permitted  to 
continue  in  service  for  indefinite  periods  in  order  to  enable  them 
to  complete  their  work.  In  addition  to  this,  a proposal  has  been 
made,  and  a Bill  has  been  introduced  in  the  General  Assembly, 
to  give  these  assessors  a new  lease  of  life  in  order  to  enable  the 
Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  to  call  them  to  its  assistance  in  an  attempt 
to  create  some  tangible  result  out  of  the  chaotic  work  that  has 
been  done. 


13 


CONDITIONS  UNDER  WHICH  QUADRENNIAL  ASSESSORS 
HAVE  DONE  THEIR  WORK. 

To  expect  two  thousand,  five  hundred  and  eleven  elected, 
inexperienced,  assessors,  unaided  by  well  devised  and  continu- 
ously corrected  records,  unguided  by  thoroughly  tested  and 
intelligently  adjusted  rules,  to  make  a correct  assessment  of  all 
real  property  in  Ohio  within  a period  of  six  months  betrays  a 
childish  confidence  in  the  infallibility  of  elected  officials  which  the 
mind  of  primitive  man  might  be  capable  of  entertaining,  but 
which  has  no  reasonable  place  in  this  enlightened  age. 

It  is  well  here  to  recall  the  state-wide  demand  made  on  the 
auditor  of  state  immediately  after  election  by  this  army  of  raw 
recruits  for  instructions  that  would  enable  them  to  do  their 
work  intelligently  and  correctly.  The  attempt  to  give  this  instruc- 
tion, en  masse,  at  a state  conference,  called  by  the  auditor  of 
state,  held  in  Columbus  on  the  15th  day  of  December,  1909,  at 
which  approximately  eighteen  hundred  (1800)  assessors  were 
present,  was  an  object  lesson  long  to  be  remembered. 

To  aid  this  purpose  in  the  most  effective  way,  the  Ohio  State 
Board  of  Commerce,  at  its  own  expense,  engaged  the  services  of 
Mr.  A.  C.  Pleydell  and  Mr.  George  J.  Craigen  to  come  to  Columbus 
and  explain  to  the  assembled  assessors  how  assessment  work  is 
done  by  men  who  have  had  fifteen  years’  or  more  continuous 
experience  in  the  doing  of  it.  These  explanations  could  not  be 
made  without  reference  to  certain  tables  and  rules  that  have 
been  developed  by  experience  and  are  in  daily  use  by  assessors 
who  are  making  a life’s  profession  of  their  work,  being  permitted 
to  work  under  conditions  that  enable  them  to  hold  their  positions 
continuously  so  long  as  they  desire  to  serve  and  continue  to  do 
satisfactory  work. 

Naturally,  there  was  an  instant  demand  for  copies  of  these 
tables  and  rules.  This  demand  was  supplied  by  the  Ohio  State 
Board  of  Commerce  at  its  own  expense.  It  arranged  with  Mr. 
A.  C.  Pleydell  and  Mr.  George  J.  Craigen,  and  Mr.  Lawson  Purdy, 
President  of  the  Department  of  Taxes  and  Assessments  for  New 
York  City,  to  compile  these  tables  and  rules  and  to  publish  the 


i4 


same  in  a booklet,  a copy  of  which  was  supplied  to  every  one  of 
the  twenty-five  hundred  and  eleven  (2511)  elected  assessors  of 
real  property  without  charge. 

One  other  incident  occurring  at  this  conference  will  be  clearly 
remembered  by  all  who  attended  it.  It  was  the  forcible  desire 
on  the  part  of  these  assessors  to  respect  their  oath  of  office  and 
assess  all  real  property  at  its  true  value  in  money,  coupled  with 
an  equally  clearly  expressed  fear  that  if  this  was  done  taxpayers 
would  be  heavily  penalized  by  such  an  assessment  through  being 
obliged  to  pay  more  taxes  on  the  full  valued  tax  list  for  1911 
than  they  did  pay  on  the  undervalued  tax  list  of  1909. 

While  the  amount  of  money  to  be  expended,  and  the  tax  rate 
by  which  it  should  be  raised,  cannot  be  taken  into  consideration 
in  the  work  of  assessors  whose  only  duty  is  to  discover  all  property 
situated  within  their  jurisdictions  and  to  assess  it  for  taxation  at 
its  true  value  in  money,  these  considerations  have  a determining 
influence  upon  public  opinion,  and  legislative  enactments  designed 
to  build  a bridge  over  which  assessment  work  can  pass  from  the 
old  condition  of  unregulated  and  uncorrected  undervaluations  to 
the  new  condition  of  regulated  and  intelligently  corrected  full 
valuations. 

Meeting  this  issue,  I frankly  stated  to  the  members  of  the 
conference  that  a full  valued  tax  list,  unsafeguarded  by  an 
effective  limitation  of  power  of  taxation,  would  produce  a calamity 
of  the  first  magnitude  for  the  people  of  the  state ; that  unless  such 
a safeguard  was  provided  by  the  General  Assembly  they  would, 
in  my  opinion,  be  justified  in  making  assessments  at  such  a per- 
centage of  full  value  as  custom  established.  This  is  a case  where 
custom  is  stronger  than  the  law.  An  evil  custom  cannot  be 
broken  without  the  aid  of  a law  that  will  effectively  safeguard  the 
people  from  unnecessary  hardship  on  account  of  the  change. 

Following  this  conference,  members  of  the  General  Assembly 
for  1910  will  remember  the  strenuous  efforts  made  to  secure  the 
enactment  of  an  effective  tax-limiting  law.  They  will  recall  the 
frequent  appeals  made  by  assessors  of  real  property  that  such  a 
law  be  enacted  promptly  so  that  they  might  know  whether  they 
would  be  expected  to  make  assessments  at  full  value,  or  at  some 
customary  per  cent,  of  full  value. 


15 


These  are  the  conditions  under  which  the  quadrennial  assessors 
of  real  property  have  done  their  work.  Can  any  intelligent 
person  entertain  a reasonable  expectation  that  this  work  has  been 
correctly  done ; that  all  real  property  in  the  State  of  Ohio  has  been 
assessed  at  its  true  value  in  money;  that  by  reason  of  such  assess- 
ment all  inequalities  between  taxpayers  have  been  eliminated; 
that  justice  has  been  established? 

The  wonder  is,  not  that  the  work  of  this  army  of  assessors, 
viewed  en  masse,  appears  chaotic,  but  that,  upon  inspection  in 
individual  detail,  so  much  of  it  is  found  to  be  comparatively  well 
done. 

The  duty  of  the  hour  is  to  utilize  their  work  in  the  best  possible 
way,  muster  out  the  quadrennial  assessors  and  proceed  to  create 
and  establish  a tax  list  for  1911  that  can  be  used  as  a basis  for 
the  computations  that  must  be  made  to  determine  the  tax  rates 
that  must  be  levied  to  raise  the  amount  of  money  each  taxing 
district  in  the  state  is  to  collect  on  the  basis  of  the  1911  tax  list. 

ANNUAL  ASSESSORS  OF  PERSONAL  PROPERTY. 

Assessors  of  personal  property  elected  biennially,  are  given 
duty  two  months  in  each  year  of  their  two-year  term,  beginning 
with  the  first  of  April  and  ending  with  the  fourth  Monday  in  May. 

Here  is  another  exhibition  of  childlike  faith  in  the  omniscence 
of  elected  officials.  Without  the  experience  that  can  only  be 
acquired  by  continuous  service;  without  proper  records  or  rules, 
this  army  of  raw  recruits  are  expected  to  find  and  assess  at  its 
true  value  in  money,  all  personal  property  located  within  their 
respective  jurisdictions. 

As  a matter  of  practical  work,  they  do  not  attempt  to  do  any- 
thing of  the  kind.  They  simply  distribute  blank  statements  for 
taxpayers  to  fill  out,  and  collect  them  up  when  they  have  been 
signed.  No  provision  is  made  on  these  blanks  for  the  entry 
against  the  several  items  of  the  assessed  values  determined  by  the 
assessor.  The  only  value  given  is  the  self-assessed  value  written 
in  by  the  taxpayer. 

Is  it  reasonable  to  expect  that  no  personal  property  will  be 
omitted,  that  no  undervaluations  will  be  made,  under  these 
conditions  ? 

16 


ALL  PERSONAL  PROPERTY  IS  NEVER  DISCOVERED  OR  FULLY 
VALUED. 

Statistical  reports  show  all  too  clearly  that  personal  property 
is  elusive,  both  as  to  its  existence  and  value.  Human  ingenuity 
in  no  age,  in  no  civilization,  in  no  community  or  state,  has  ever 
been  equal  to  the  task  of  finding  and  assessing  at  full  value,  or 
any  established  percentage  of  full  value,  all  tangible  and  all 
intangible  personal  property  and  levying  a tax  on  such  valuation 
uniform  with  the  rate  levied  on  real  property,  as  the  constitution 
of  Ohio  requires.  The  attempt  to  do  this  has  been  abandoned  by 
every  government  excepting  the  States  of  this  American  Union, 
and  many  of  these  States  are  now  diligently  searching  for  prac- 
ticable substitutes  for  their  personal  property  tax. 

These  facts,  however,  do  not  justify  the  inefficient  administra- 
tion of  personal  property  tax  laws  which  has  been  so  long  per- 
mitted. 

To  secure  an  efficient  administration  of  personal  property  tax 
laws,  the  same  methods  must  be  pursued  and  the  same  condi- 
tions must  be  established  as  have  been  indicated  as  being  necessary 
for  the  efficient  administration  of  laws  for  assessing  real  property. 

Personal  property  and  real  property  should  both  be  assessed 
by  the  same  assessors.  The  conditions  of  service,  the  records, 
rules  and  methods,  the  powers  and  duties  in  making  original 
assessments  and  in  correcting  original  assessments,  should  be 
identical  for  both  classes  of  property,  so  far  as  practicable. 

The  assessors  of  personal  property  elected  in  November  1909 
will  finish  their  last  service  on  the  fourth  Monday  in  May  1911. 
Their  work,  in  whatever  condition  it  may  be,  should  be  promptly 
transferred  to  a city  board  of  assessors  and  a county  assessor,  so 
that  personal  property  and  real  property  assessments  may  be 
combined  and  the  tax  list  for  1911  may  be  completed  without 
delay.  With  this  transfer  the  race  of  annual  assessors  of  personal 
property  should  cease  to  exist.  The  office  of  annual  assessor  of 
personal  property  should  be  abolished. 


i7 


CITY  BOARDS  OF  REVIEW  AND  EQUALIZATION. 

A step  in  the  right  direction  was  taken  when  city  boards  of 
review  were  created,  the  members  of  which  are  appointed  to  serve 
for  the  considerable  period  of  five  years. 

The  duties  of  these  boards  as  now  constituted  are  limited  to 
correcting  real  estate  valuations  when  made  necessary  from  time 
to  time  by  the  addition  of  new  structures  and  improvements,  or 
by  the  destruction  of  existing  structures,  and  by  the  discovery 
of  omitted  property,  real  or  personal.  They  also  have  the  duty 
of  convening  as  a quadrennial  board  of  equalization  for  the 
correction  of  quadrennial  assessments  of  real  property. 

In  the  performance  of  these  duties,  much  good  service  has  been 
rendered,  and  records  of  real  value  have  been  acquired. 

The  service  of  these  boards  in  supervising  and  correcting 
assessments  of  personal  property  has  been  helpful,  but  not  as 
effective  as  it  would  have  been  if  the  assessors  doing  the  work 
had  been  appointees  of  the  boards. 

These  boards  should  be  re-organized  as  city  boards  of  assessors, 
in  which  form  they  should  be  invested  with  broader  powers  and 
permitted  to  work  under  conditions  well  designed  to  make  their 
work  efficient.  The  office  of  member  of  a board  of  review  for 
municipal  corporations  should  be  abolished. 

COUNTY  BOARDS  OF  REVIEW  AND  EQUALIZATION. 

These  boards  are  made  up  of  county  officials  who  are  utterly 
unable  to  perform  the  required  duties  in  addition  to  the  duties 
properly  pertaining  to  their  elective  offices. 

The  duties  of  these  boards  are  the  same  as  the  duties  of  corres- 
ponding city  boards,  with  the  exception  that  they  are  called  upon 
to  equalize  the  valuations  of  the  several  taxing  districts  within 
their  county,  dealing  with  them  in  totals,  which  city  boards  are 
not  required  to  do.  This  duty  of  district  equalization  weakens 
the  efficiency  of  these  boards  in  the  performance  of  the  duty  of 
review  and  the  correction  of  individual  appraisements.  Such 
work  has  never  been  effectively  done  by  them.  As  a result, 
taxpayers  in  townships  and  villages  suffer  more  from  unequal 

18 


valuations  than  do  taxpayers  in  large  cities  where  boards  of  review, 
having  no  other  duties  to  perform,  have  kept  better  pace  with 
the  changing  values  of  structures. 

Governor  Harmon  in  his  message  to  the  79th  General  Assembly, 
in  referring  to  the  manner  in  which  the  duties  of  boards  made  up 
of  state  officials  are  performed,  says: 

“The  chief  cause  of  these  discreditable  and  costly  con- 
ditions was  the  utter  inability  of  boards  made  up  of  state 
officers  fully  occupied  with  their  proper  duties  to  give  the 
time  and  attention  necessary  for  this  important  work.” 

The  “discreditable  and  costly  conditions”  referred  to  was  the 
inefficient  assessment,  or  the  correction  of  assessments,  of  cor- 
porations made  by  these  state  boards.  When  the  work  of  assess- 
ment and  the  correction  of  assessments  is  taken  out  of  the  hands 
of  county  boards  of  review  and  equalization,  composed  of  county 
officials,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  appointed  officers  whose  sole 
duty  it  will  be  to  perform  the  one  service  required  of  them,  the 
results  will  prove  the  work  of  county  boards  composed  of  county 
officials  to  have  been  as  “disastrous  and  costly”  as  the  work  of 
boards  composed  of  state  officials  has  been. 

All  county  boards  of  review  and  equalization  should  be  abol- 
ished. 


19 


PART  III. 


THE  PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  ASSESSMENT  WORK. 

The  quadrennial  assessment  of  real  property  was  commenced 
January  15,  1910,  as  required  by  law,  but  it  was  not  finished  on 
July  15,  1910,  as  required  by  law.  The  time  within  which  the 
work  should  have  been  completed  has  been  extended  for  many 
assessors  by  county  commissioners,  county  auditors  or  the  Tax 
Commission  of  Ohio. 

Delay  in  completing  the  work  of  original  assessment  has 
delayed  the  work  of  city  and  county  boards  of  equalization  so 
that  the  work  these  boards  should  have  done  to  correct  under- 
valuations and  overvaluations,  and  to  equalize  total  valuations 
between  taxing  districts,  has  not  been  done  with  any  approach 
to  thoroughness. 

Added  to  the  errors  and  undervaluations  that  are  inevitable 
in  the  work  of  inexperienced  assessors,  are  the  undervaluations 
that  have  resulted  from  the  unsettled  condition  of  the  proposed 
tax-limiting  law,  and  the  force  of  custom  in  making  valuations 
at  some  percentage  of  full  value — say  forty  or  fifty  per  cent. — 
which  many  assessors  were  not  able  to  overcome. 

As  a result  of  these  conditions,  the  assessment  of  real  property 
has  not  been  correctly  done.  The  work  is  full  of  the  most  glaring 
inequalities  which  can  easily  be  found  by  comparing  the  assess- 
ments of  the  parcels  of  property  in  the  same  taxing  district. 
These  inequalities  must  be  corrected  or  some  taxpayer  will  be 
required  to  pay  more,  while  others  will  be  permitted  to  pay  less, 
than  their  fair  share.  Such  a result  cannot  be  permitted  if  the 
“moral  effect  of  the  assurance  that  fairness  and  justice  will  rule 
with  respect  to  all  taxpayers  alike  is  to  be  an  asset  in  good  govern- 
ment” in  Ohio. 


20 


THE  ASSESSMENT  OF  PERSONAL  PROPERTY  IS  A FARCE. 

The  work  of  annual  assessors  of  personal  property  is  to  com- 
mence on  the  first  of  April  and  is  to  be  finished  on  the  fourth 
Monday  in  May  1911.  The  preparations  made  for  this  work  are 
no  different  from  similar  preparations  made  in  the  past,  therefore, 
there  is  no  reason  to  expect  that  it  will  be  done  any  more  efficiently 
than  it  has  been  done  in  the  past.  The  degree  of  efficiency  with 
which  this  work  is  done  is  indicated  by  the  popular  expression 
“the  assessment  of  personal  property  is  a farce.” 

The  assessment  of  personal  property  is  the  weak  point  in  our 
taxation  system.  Undervaluations  of  real  property,  resulting 
in  a high  tax  rate,  have  compelled  taxpayers  to  resort  to  hiding 
and  undervaluing  their  personal  property  in  order  to  escape  a 
serious  impairment  of  their  incomes  and  a general  handicap  on 
their  business  which  they  could  not  carry. 

The  listing  and  full  valuation  of  all  personal  property  is  an 
important  factor  in  the  movement  to  secure  the  full  valuation  of 
all  real  property. 

The  reasonable  expectation  is  that  a full  valuation  of  all  real 
property  will  increase  the  total  of  the  tax  list  so  much  that  (the 
amount  of  money  to  be  raised  on  the  1911  tax  list  remaining  the 
same  as  the  amount  raised  on  the  1909  tax  list)  the  tax  rate 
will  be  reduced  to  a point  at  which  taxpayers  can  afford  to  return 
all  their  personal  property  and  list  it  at  full  value  for  taxation. 

But  these  happy  conditions  do  not  exist. 

WHAT  WILL  TAXPAYERS  DO? 

Personal  property  must  be  listed  and  assessed  now.  Tax- 
payers are  to  be  called  upon  at  once  for  their  personal  property 
statements.  What  will  they  do? 

On  account  of  the  condition  of  real  property  assessment  work, 
taxpayers  cannot  know  by  how  much  the  real  property  section 
of  the  duplicate  has  been  or  will  be  increased  by  the  quadrennial 
assessors  of  real  property,  when  this  work  is  corrected  to  eliminate 
inequalities  caused  by  undervaluations,  which  can  only  be  done 


21 


by  raising  every  individual  undervaluation  to  full  value.  These 
corrections  will  increase  the  total  of  the  tax  list,  but  who  can 
say  how  much? 

Another  disturbing  factor  is  the  possible  action  of  the  state 
board  of  equalization  in  ordering  horizontal  increases  or  decreases 
of  the  totals  of  township,  village,  city  and  county  tax  lists  in  a 
vain  attempt  to  establish  justice  in  taxation.  Such  attempt  will 
not  correct,  it  will  confirm,  every  inequality  existing  in  real 
property  assessments.  It  should  not  be  permitted.  The  law 
authorizing  it  should  be  repealed. 

Another  factor  in  the  calculation  is  the  fact  that  it  has  not 
been  made  certain  by  act  of  the  General  Assembly  that  no  more 
money  shall  be  raised  by  any  taxing  district  on  the  1911  tax  list 
than  was  raised  by  it  on  the  1909  tax  list;  therefore,  the  tax- 
payer has  no  assurance  that  the  tax  rate  for  1911  will  be  reduced 
in  proportion  identical  with  the  increase  in  the  total  of  the 
tax  list,  real  and  personal  property  included.  If  this  is  not 
done,  taxpayers  will  be  obliged  to  pay  more  taxes  in  1911  than 
they  paid  in  1909. 

With  these  uncertainties  as  to  the  aggregate  increase  of  the  tax 
tax  list  and  a possible  increase  in  the  amount  of  taxes  to  be 
paid,  what  will  taxpayers  do  in  returning  their  personal  property 
for  taxation?  Will  they  return  all  of  their  personal  property 
and  assess  themselves  at  its  full  value;  or  will  they  follow  the 
established  custom  of  many  years’  standing  and  seek  to  reduce 
the  amount  of  their  tax  by  omissions  and  undervaluations? 

Since  no  assurance  can  be  given  that  the  tax  rate  for  1911  will 
not  exceed  one  per  cent,  it  is-  reasonable  to  expect  that  the  personal 
property  section  of  the  tax  list  will  not  be  increased  by  self- 
assessment  to  the  full  value  of  all  such  property. 

WHAT  TAXPAYERS  CAN  DO. 

There  is  one  way  in  which  taxpayers  can  safeguard  themselves. 
They  can  create  a public  opinion  stronger  than  law,  more  easily 
executed,  which  will  cause  every  man  who  votes  for  an  increase  in 
taxation  over  the  amount  raised  in  1909  to  know  that  that  vote  is  his 
political  death  warrant. 


22 


If  taxpayers  will  perform  their  clearly-defined  public  duty  on 
this  point,  such  a public  opinion  will  be  created  and  it  will  be 
* effective.  Taxpayers  have  the  power  to  limit  the  power  of  taxa- 
tion in  this  way.  It  is  their  duty  to  exercise  this  power.  If 
they  do  not  do  it,  their  failure  will  be  rightly  construed  by  those 
who  vote  taxes  as  a permission  to  increase  taxes , and  they  will  be 
increased. 

Taxpayers  should  prove  themselves  equal  to  the  existing 
emergency.  They  should  list  all  of  their  personal  property  at  full 
value  and  depend  upon  their  influence  with  their  own  local  taxing 
officials,  .and  with  their  representatives  in  the  General  Assembly, 
to  make  it  certain  that  they  shall  not  pay  any  more  taxes  on  the 
1911  tax  list  than  they  did  pay  on  the  1909  tax  list. 

By  following  this  course  the  personal  property  section  of  the 
tax  list  will  be  increased  proportionably  with  the  increase  made 
in  the  real  property  section. 

The  aggregate  of  the  tax  list  increased  in  both  sections  to 
approximately  the  full  value  of  the  property  assessed,  will  be 
sufficiently  large  to  enable  two-thirds  of  the  taxing  districts  in 
the  state  to  raise  as  much  money  in  1911  as  they  raised  in  1909 
on  a tax  rate  of  less  than  one  per  cent. 

No  taxpayer  will  be  penalized  for  having  listed  all  of  his 
personal  property  at  full  value  if  he  is  taxed  at  a rate  less  than  one 
per  cent. 

A public  sentiment  strong  enough  to  induce  taxpayers  to 
voluntarily  list  all  of  their  personal  property  at  full  value,  will  be 
strong  enough  to  safeguard  them  against  an  increase  in  the  amount 
of  taxes  to  be  paid. 

ASSESSMENTS  CANNOT  BE  CORRECTED  IN  TIME  EOR  1911 
TAX  LIST. 

The  assessed  value  of  all  real  and  personal  property  is  entered 
on  the  tax  list  as  of  April  1st. 

The  law  assumes  that  all  corrections  of  assessments  of  real 
property  will  be  made  by  April  first,  and  requires  the  self-assess- 
ment statements  of  personal  property  to  be  made  as  of  this  date 
by  personal  property  tax  payers. 


23 


The  assessment  work  of  personal  property  assessors  is  to  be 
finished  on  the  fourth  Monday  in  May.  All  correction  and 
equalization  work  should  be  completed  on  the  first  Monday  in 
June. 

The  tax  list  should  be  completed  for  each  taxing  district  on 
the  first  Monday  in  July. 

The  tax  list  should  be  completed  for  each  county  on  the  first 
Monday  in  August. 

The  tax  list  for  the  state  should  be  completed  on  the  first 
Monday  in  October. 

The  tax  assessed  will  be  due  and  payable,  one-half  in  Decem- 
ber 1911  and  one-half  in  June  1912. 

This  statement  of  dates  clearly  demonstrates  the  fact  that 
the  work  of  correcting  under  and  over  assessments,  in  order  that 
each  taxpayer  may  enjoy  the  “assurance  that  fairness  and  justice 
will  rule  with  respect  to  all  taxpayers  alike,”  cannot  be  accom- 
plished within  the  time  required. 

More  serious  than  this,  however,  is  the  fact  that  this  vitally 
important  work  of  correcting  assessments  cannot  be  done  at  all 
by  the  existing  administrative  machinery  provided  by  law  for 
this  purpose. 

If  each  taxpayer  is  to  be  treated  with  “fairness  and  justice” 
the  old  inadequate  and  out-of-date  machinery  now  in  use  must 
be  discarded  and  entirely  new  machinery  capable  of  doing  the 
required  work  must  be  installed  in  its  place. 


2 4 


PART  IV. 


THE  OLD  MACHINERY  TO  BE  DISCARDED. 

1.  The  office  of  quadrennial  assessor  of  real  property  should 
be  abolished. 

2.  The  office  of  annual  assessor  of  personal  property  should 
be  abolished; 

3.  All  boards  of  annual  review  and  quadrennial  equalization 
for  municipal  corporations  should  be  abolished; 

4.  All  county  boards  of  annual  review  and  quadrennial 
equalization  should  be  abolished; 

5.  The  state  board  of  equalization  should  be  abolished; 

6.  The  custom  of  electing  assessors  and  of  giving  assessors 
short  terms  of  service  should  be  abandoned. 

THE  NEW  MACHINERY  TO  BE  INSTALLED. 

1.  A board  of  assessors  for  each  city,  of  three  members,  is  to 
be  created  by  transfering  to  its  membership  the  present  members 
of  all  boards  of  annual  review  and  quadrennial  equalization  for 
municipal  corporations,  all  vacancies  whenever  occurring  to  be 
filled  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  to  serve  for  six  years, 
excepting  when  made  for  unexpired  terms; 

2.  A county  assessor  for  each  county  is  to  be  appointed  by 
the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  to  serve  for  six  years; 

3.  To  utilize  the  experience  gained  by  members  of  the  exist- 
ing city  boards  of  review,  the  members  of  such  boards  now  in 
office  are  to  become  members  of  the  new  city  board  of  assessors, 
by  transfer,  and  their  terms  of  service  are  to  be  extended  so  that 
those  expiring  in  1911  will  expire  on  the  second  Monday  in  January 
1912;  those  expiring  in  1912  will  expire  in  1914,  and  those  expiring 
in  1913  will  expire  in  1916.  On  and  after  1916  all  terms  are  to 
be  for  six  years.  All  appointments  made  by  the  Tax  Commission 
of  Ohio  are  to  be  made  from  a list  of  five  eligible  persons  submit- 
ted by  the  board  of  civil  service  commissioners  of  the  city  in  which 
the  vacancy  occurs. 


25 


4.  All  original  appointments  of  county  assessors,  and  all 
appointments  to  fill  vacancies,  made  by  the  Tax  Commission  of 
Ohio,  are  to  be  made  from  a list  of  five  eligible  persons  submitted 
by  the  county  auditor  of  the  county  for  which  the  appointment  is 
made.  Original  appointments  are  to  be  for  a term  of  six  years 
from  the  second  Monday  in  January  1912,  and  afterwards  for 
six  years; 

5.  The  transfer  of  members  of  city  boards  of  review  and 
equalization,  to  be  members  of  city  boards  of  assessors,  and  all 
original  appointments  of  county  assessors  are  to  be  made  on  or 
before  the  first  Monday  in  June  1911; 

6.  All  powers  and  duties  of  city  boards  of  assessors  and  of 
county  assessors  are  to  be  identical.  They  are  to  exercise  all  the 
powers  and  discharge  all  of  the  duties  heretofore  imposed  and 
required  from  all  assessors  and  boards  displaced  by  them. 

7.  City  boards  of  assessors  are  to  have  jurisdiction  over  all 
assessment  work  within  their  respective  cities,  and  county 
assessors  are  to  have  jurisdiction  over  all  assessment  work 
within  their  respective  counties  outside  of  cities. 

8.  Boards  of  city  assessors,  and  county  assessors,  are  to  have 
power  to  appoint  and  fix  the  compensation  of  their  secretaries, 
experts,  clerks,  accountants,  stenographers  and  other  assistants, 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  county  commissioners  of  their 
respective  counties.  In  case  county  commissioners  neglect  or 
refuse  to  give  the  necessary  authority  for  making  such  appoint- 
ments, or  for  the  proper  compensation  of  the  persons  appointed, 
the  assessors  may  apply  to  the  Tax  Commission  for  such  authority 
and  said  Commission  is  to  be  given  power  to  grant  the  request. 

9.  The  work  of  city  boards  of  assessors  and  of  county  assess- 
ors is  to  be  placed  under  the  supervision  of  the  Tax  Commission 
of  Ohio.  All  instructions,  books,  forms  and  rules  issued  by  said 
Commission  to  such  assessors  are  to  be  identical  and  uniform  in 
every  respect  and  are  to  be  designed  to  secure  a uniform  and 
efficient  administration  of  all  tax  laws. 

10.  Efficient  administration  being  the  result  sought  in  dis- 
placing old  and  installing  new  assessment  machinery,  city  boards 
of  assessors  and  county  assessors  will  serve  the  purpose  in  view 


26 


most  effectively  by  appointing  as  their  assistants  former  assessors 
of  real  and  personal  property  who  have  made  good  service  records 
within  their  respective  jurisdictions.  In  this  way,  and  by  pro- 
viding that  members  of  the  existing  city  boards  of  review  shall 
be  members  of  city  boards  of  assessors,  all  serviceable  working 
parts  of  the  old  machinery  will  be  utilized  in  the  new  machinery 
and  the  people  will  gain  the  advantages  that  can  only  be  derived 
from  experience.  Assessors  ppointed  originally  on  the  basis  of 
experience  and  ability,  guaranteed  terms  of  service  sufficiently 
long  to  enable  them  to  perfect  their  records  and  rules  and  to 
become  experts  in  their  profession,  can  be  reasonably  expected 
to  make  an  enormous  gain  in  the  accuracy  and  efficiency  of 
assessment  work. 


COUNTY  TAX  APPEAL  JURIES. 

11.  To  give  every  taxpayer  a tangible  and  reliable  “assurance 
that  fairness  and  justice  will  rule  with  respect  to  all  taxpayers 
alike to  guarantee  that  justice  will  be  established  between 
taxpayers,  a county  tax  appeal  jury  of  three  members  is  to  be 
appointed  for  each  county  by  the  Judges  of  the  common  please 
court.  The  duty  of  the  juries  shall  be  to  hear  and  render  a decision 
upon  every  protest  filed  with  them  against  any  original  assessment 
or  any  correction  of  an  original  assessment  of  real  or  personal 
property  made  by  a quadrennial  assessor  of  real  property,  by  an 
annual  assessor  of  personal  property,  by  a city  board  of  assessors, 
or  by  a county  assessor. 

taxpayer’s  right  oe  protest. 

12.  Further  to  safeguard  taxpayers  and  to  make  the  estab- 
lishment of  justice  still  more  certain,  every  taxpayer  who  has 
filed  his  statement  of  taxable  property  with  an  annual  assessor  of 
personal  property,  properly  filled  out  and  attested,  on  or  before 
the  fourth  Monday  in  May  1911,  and  annually  thereafter,  is  to  be 
given  the  right  to  protest  against  any  assessment  of  his  real  or 
personal  property  made  by  a quadrennial  assessor  of  real  property 
in  1910  or  1911,  or  by  an  annual  assessor  of  personal  property 
made  in  1911,  or  thereafter  made  by  a board  of  city  assessors  or 
by  a county  assessor,  and  is  to  be  given  the  right  to  protest  against 


any  correction  of  such  assessment  whenever'  of  by  whomever" 
made. 

Every  such  protest  is  to  be  filed  with  the  assessor  having 
jurisdiction  over  the  assessment  protested  against  on  or  before 
the  first  Monday  in  June  in  any  year. 

Protests  cannot  be  filed  by  any  taxpayer  who  has  failed  to  file 
his  statement  of  taxable  property,  properly  filled  out  and  attested, 
with  the  assessor  for  the  taxing  district  within  which  his  property 
is  taxable,  on  or  before  the  fourth  Monday  in  May  in  any  year, 
and  no  protest  can  be  filed  after  the  first  Monday  in  June  in  any 
year. 

Every  assessor  must  record  his  decision  on  every  protest  filed 
with  him  on  or  before  the  first  Monday  in  July  each  year,  and  must 
immediately  file  with  the  county  tax  appeal  jury  every  protest 
on  which  his  decision  is  not  accepted  by  the  protesting  taxpayer. 

taxpayer’s  right  of  appeal. 

1.  Each  county  tax  appeal  jury  is  to  be  required  to  hear  and 
render  a decision  upon  every  protest  filed  with  them.  For  this 
purpose  they  are  to  hold  session^  in  any  township,  village  or  city 
in  which  the  property  the  assessment  of  which  is  protested  against 
is  situated. 

2.  In  case  a taxpayer  is  dissatisfied  with  the  decision  of  the 
county  tax  appeal  jury,  he  is  to  be  given  the  right  to  appeal  from 
the  decision  of  the  jury  to  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio. 

3.  In  case  a taxpayer  is  dissatisfied  with  the  decision  of  the 
Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  he  is  to  be  given  the  right  to  appeal 
from  the  decision  of  the  Commission  to  the  common  pleas  court 
having  jurisdiction  over  the  taxing  district  in  which  the  property 
is  situated  the  assessment  of  which  is  protested  against.  The 
decision  of  the  common  pleas  court  is  to  be  final. 

ASSESSORS  TO  DEFEND  ASSESSMENT. 

It  is  to  be  the  duty  of  every  assessor  to  defend  any  assessment 
over  which  he  has  jurisdiction  against  the  protest  of  any  taxpayer. 
On  behalf  of  such  defense,  the  assessor  is  to  have  the  same  rights 
of  appeal  as  the  taxpayer. 


28 


TAXES  TO  BE  PAID  WHEN  DUE.  REFUND  OF  EXCESS  TAXES. 


In  case  a tax  becomes  due  before  a decision  that  is  accepted 
by  a taxpayer  as  satisfactory  is  rendered  on  a protest  filed  by  him, 
he  is  to  pay  the  full  amount  of  the  tax  as  assessed. 

In  case  the  final  decision  is  in  favor  of  the  taxpayer,  the  author- 
ity rendering  the  decision  is  to  give  him  an  order  on  the  auditor 
of  the  county  in  which  the  tax  was  paid  for  a refund  of  the  full 
amount  of  the  excess  tax,  with  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent, 
from  the  date  of  the  tax  payment  to  the  date  of  the  refund  pay- 
ment, together  with  an  allowance,  to  be  determined  by  the  author- 
ity rendering  the  decision,  to  cover  his  expense  incurred  in  prose- 
cuting his  claim. 

NO  ABATEMENT  OR  REFUND  OF  TAXES  TO  BE  ALLOWED 
EXCEPT  BY  DECISIONS  ON  PROTESTS. 

Favoritism  is  to  be  eliminated  and  public  treasuries  are  to  be 
safeguarded  by  prohibiting  the  granting  of  appeals  for  the  abate- 
ment or  refund  of  a tax,  by  whomever  or  to  whomever  made, 
excepting  "as  ordered  by  a decision  on  a protest  filed  and  heard  as 
provided. 


RESULTS  EXPECTED. 

The  operation  of  this  new  system  will  withdraw  the  assessment 
of  property  for  taxation  from  the  realm  of  uncertainty,  where  the 
work  has  been  done  by  guess-work  and  fiat  orders,  to  the  realm 
of  an  exact,  clear-cut,  well-defined  business  procedure  where 
each  taxpayer  can  know  that  the  taxable  value  of  his  property 
will  be  determined  with  as  much  accuracy  as  it  would  be  if  it  was 
to  be  appraised  for  a loan,  or  for  sale,  and  where,  in  case  he  is  not 
satisfied  with  the  valuation,  he  will  have  a right  of  appeal  on  which 
he  is  certain  to  secure  justice. 

Assessment  work,  and  the  work  of  correcting  assessments,  done 
continuously  by  assessors  who  become  experts  by  the  education 
of  experience  gained  by  the  years  of  service,  aided  by  well  kept  and 
continuously  corrected  records  and  rules  and  supervised  by  a 
competent  Tax  Commission,  will  inevitably  develop  a degree  of 
efficiency  that  has  been  unknown  in  the  past. 


29 


I feel  justified  in  making  an  adaptation  on  this  subject  of 
the  words  of  commendation  used  by  Governor  Harmon  in  his 
message  to  the  79th  General  Assembly,  referring  to  the  work  of 
the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  by  saying: 

It  is  plain  that  the  new  system  proposed  for  the  administration 
of  the  tax  assessment  laws  of  the  state  will  soon  justify  its  creation. 
The  only  regret  of  the  people  will  be  that  such  a system  was  not 
created  sooner.  I am  firmly  convinced  that  the  cost  of  this  system, 
when  well  established  and  properly  provided  for,  will  prove  to 
be  the  most  productive  public  investment  the  people  of  this  state 
have  ever  made. 

I feel  no  hesitancy  in  adding  that,  if  the  six  month’s  work  of 
an  inexperienced  and  imperfectly  organized  state  tax  commission 
can  merit  such  commendation,  the  first  year’s  work  of  the  city 
boards  of  assessors,  of  the  county  assessors,  and  of  the  county 
tax  appeal  juries,  when  created  and  appointed  as  I propose,  will 
command  even  greater  praise.  Upon  this  proposition  the  people 
of  the  state  cannot  be  losers.  They  will  be  enormous  gainers. 


30 


PART  V. 


MAKING  THE  1911  TAX  LIST. 

The  chaotic  condition  of  the  assessment  work  done  by  the 
quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property  and  the  inefficient  work 
that  is  sure  to  be  done  by  the  annual  assessors  of  personal  property 
calls  for  a painstaking  and  careful  investigation  and  correction 
of  the  assessment  of  every  individual  parcel  of  property. 

The  necessity  for  such  work  is  made  doubly  imperative  by  the 
fact  that  it  has  never  been  done  in  the  past  and  that  it  must  be 
done  now  if  future  assessments  are  to  give  an  “assurance  that 
fairness  and  justice  will  rule  with  respect  to  all  taxpayers  alike.’ * 

It  is  certain  that  no  human  agency,  however  devised  and 
equipped,  can  be  equal  to  the  task  of  properly  making  and  com- 
pleting all  corrections  by  the  time  the  1911  tax  list  must  be 
completed  for  the  use  of  the  taxing  authorities  of  all  taxing  districts. 
And  yet,  every  undervalued  and  every  over-valued  assessment  of 
real  and  personal  property  must  be  corrected  so  as  to  assess  the 
property  involved  at  its  true  value  if  all  inequalities  are  to  be 
eliminated,  if  justice  is  to  be  established. 

The  1911  tax  list  must  be  ready  to  be  used  as  a basis  for 
computing  the  tax  rate  for  1911  on  or  before  July  1,  1911.  This 
must  be  done  in  order  that  the  work  of  computing  and  extending 
the  amount  of  tax  each  taxpayer  is  to  pay  may  be  finished  in  time 
for  the  collection  of  the  first  half  of  the  tax  due  in  December  1911. 

THE  COMPLETION  OE  THE  1911  TAX  LIST  MUST  BE  FORCED. 

TAXPAYERS’  RIGHTS  MUST  BE  SAFE-GUARDED. 

Time  will  not  wait  on  the  convenience  of  men.  The  comple- 
tion of  the  1911  tax  list  must  be  forced.  The  only  thing  that 
can  now  be  done  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos  is  to  provide  a way 
in  which  the  1911  tax  list  can  be  completed,  on  the  basis  of  an 
estimated  full  value  of  the  property  assessed,  and  the  rights  of 
taxpayers  can  be  properly  safeguarded.  This  can  be  done  by 
adopting  the  proposed  system  of  city  boards  of  assessors,  county 
assessors  and  county  tax  appeal  juries. 


31 


When  the  city  boards  of  assessors,  and  the  county  assessors 
have  entered  upon  their  duties,  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio 
can  instruct  them  to  complete  the  1911  tax  list  for  each  of  the 
several  taxing  districts  within  their  respective  jurisdictions,  by 
increasing  all  assessments  by  the  percentage  it  is  estimated 
the  total  of  assessments  is  below  the  total  full  value  of  all 
property  assessed.  In  doing  this,  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  should 
be  given  in  favor  of  full  valuation. 

If  the  estimated  percentage  is  too  high,  the  necessary  correc- 
tions can  be  made  later  on  through  decisions  on  the  protests  that 
will  be  filed.  If  they  are  too  low,  however,  the  under-valuations 
as  made  will  not  be  protested  against,  and,  therefore,  no  correc- 
tions of  such  valuations  can  be  made  on  the  1911  tax  list.  It 
is  an  axiom  in  assessment  work  that  an  assessment  against  which 
no  protest  is  made  is  an  under- valuation. 

The  valuations  of  personal  property  can  be  increased  in  the 
same  way  by  the  same  or  a different  percentage  as  in  the  judgment 
of  the  assessors  may  be  thought  necessary. 

PROTESTS  AND  CORRECTIONS. 

On  the  first  Monday  in  June,  notice  is  to  be  given  by  advertise- 
ment to  all  taxpayers  that  the  work  of  original  assessment  has 
been  completed  and  that  any  taxpayer  applying  for  the  same, 
enclosing  a two-cent  stamp  with  his  application,  will  be  furnished 
with  a statement  showing  the  taxable  values  of  the  real  and  per- 
sonal property  listed  in  his  name. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  this  statement,  the  taxpayer  will  have  the 
right,  if  he  desires  to  do  so,  to  file  a protest  against  the  assessed 
valuation  of  his  property.  This  protest  must  show  the  amount 
of  the  valuation  and  the  amount  of  the  claimed  over- valuation. 
Protests  against  under- valuation  are  not  expected. 

All  protests,  to  be  valid,  must  be  filed  with  the  assessor  on  or 
before  the  first  Monday  in  June. 

It  is  certain  that  assessors  will  not  be  able  to  correct  all  assess- 
ments protested  against  before  the  first  Monday  in  July,  the  date 
on  which  the  1911  tax  list  must  be  completed;  nor  is  it  probable 
that  every  correction  he  would  make,  if  he  had  ample  time  in 


32 


which  to  consider  each  protest  on  its  merits,  would  be  satisfactory 
to  the  protesting  taxpayer.  All  the  assessor  can  do,  when  the  first 
Monday  in  July  arrives,  will  be  to  certify  all  unsatisfied  protests 
to  the  county  tax  appeal  jury  and  enter  in  each  case  on  the  tax 
tax  list  a notice  of  protest  and  the  amount  of  over-valuation 
claimed. 

NO  INJUSTICE  TO  TAXPAYERS  WILL  RESULT  FROM  THE  FORCING  OF 

THE  TAX  LIST. 

When  done  and  safeguarded  as  proposed,  no  injustice  will 
result  from  the  forcing  of  the  tax  list  as  proposed. 

Taxpayers  will  have  a means  of  securing  such  reductions  in  the 
valuations  of  their  property  as  they  may  claim  to  be  just,  provided 
they  can  prove  the  justness  of  their  claim,  so  that  as  a final  result 
they  will  pay  no  more  tax  than  they  should  pay. 

As  compensation  for  their  trouble  in  making  and  prosecuting 
their  protest,  they  will  gain  four  substantial  advantages: 

1.  The  system  proposed  will  raise  under- valued  property  to 
full  value.  Therefore,  owners  of  property  that  was  originally 
assessed  at  a higher  proportionate  value  than  the  under-valued 
property  will  have  the  amount  of  their  tax  reduced  by  the  amount 
by  which  it  would  have  been  increased  if  the  under-valuation 
had  been  allowed  to  stand. 

2.  Owners  of  property  originally  assessed  at  full  value,  or 
more  than  full  value,  which  valuation  will  also  be  raised  by  the 
addition  of  the  percentage  of  increase  used  to  bring  under- valued 
property  up  to  full  value,  will  be  able  to  secure  a decision  that  will 
relieve  them  from  paying  a tax  on  more  than  full  value;  or,  if  the 
tax  is  paid,  will  secure  for  them  a refund  of  the  full  amount  of  the 
excess  tax,  with  interest,  and  an  allowance  to  cover  expenses 
incurred  in  prosecuting  their  claim,  so  that  as  a final  result,  they 
will  pay  no  more  tax  than  they  should  pay  on  the  full  value  of 
their  property. 

3.  It  is  to  be  provided  that  the  value  of  real  property  when 
fixed  by  a county  tax  appeal  jury,  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  or 
a common  pleas  court,  by  a decision  on  a taxpayer’s  protest,  shall 
stand  unchanged  except  by  corrections  on  account  of  the  addition 


33 


of  new  structures  or  the  destruction  of  old  ones,  until  the  end  of 
the  quadrennial  period  of  1914. 

4.  By  forcing  the  tax  list  as  proposed,  a greater  gain  can 
be  made  in  the  direction  of  securing  a full  valued  tax  list, 
making  a low  tax  rate  possible,  and  in  establishing  justice,  than 
can  possibly  be  accomplished  in  any  other  way.  It  is  the  only 
way  in  which  customs  that  have  become  deeply  rooted  through  years 
of  observance  can  be  overcome,  and  the  evil  of  tax  evasion  by 
means  of  under-valuation  can  be  eradicated  from  our  system  of 
taxation. 

To  complete  the  work  of  correcting  tax  assessments,  it  is  to  be 
provided  that  all  assessments,  not  fixed  by  a decision  on  a protest 
rendered  as  proposed,  shall  be  corrected  by  the  assessors  to  become 
effective  for  the  1912  tax  list.  This  will  permit  the  work  of 
eliminating  all  inequalities,  of  establishing  justice,  to  proceed  under 
conditions  that  will  make  its  final  accomplishment  certain.  The 
completion  of  this  work  should  be  most  strenuously  desired  by 
every  taxpayer. 

BY  FORCING  THE  TAX  LIST  AS  PROPOSED,  A GREAT  GAIN  WILL  BE 
MADE  FOR  EVERY  TAXING  DISTRICT. 

By  forcing  the  tax  list  as  proposed,  the  work  can  be  brought 
to  a useable  stage  of  completion  so  that  the  taxing  authorities 
of  every  taxing  district  can  have  a tax  list  to  use  as  a basis  on 
which  to  compute  the  tax  rate  for  1911.  In  this  way  the  work 
of  preparing  for  and  collecting  taxes  on  the  1911  tax  list  can 
proceed  without  hindrance  from  any  cause. 

The  tax  list  as  proposed  will  show  the  total  valuation  of  all 
property  assessed  and  the  total  amount  of  excess  value  claimed 
by  recorded  protests.  It  is  certain  that  the  total  of  the  tax  list, 
less  the  amount  of  excess  valuation  claimed,  if  forced  as  proposed, 
will  be  larger  than  it  will  be  if  made  up  in  any  other  way  than  the 
one  proposed. 

By  using  the  total  of  the  tax  list,  less  the  amount  of  excess 
valuation  claimed,  as  a basis  for  computing  the  tax  rate,  that  rate 
will  be  higher  than  it  will  be  if  the  total,  including  the  excess 
valuation  claimed,  is  used  as  a basis  for  computing  the  rate.  The 
tax  will  be  assessed  upon  the  highest  valuation  in  either  case. 


34 


This  method  of  procedure  will  safeguard  the  revenues  from 
depletion  on  account  of  refunds  of  excess  taxes  ordered  by  decisions 
on  protests. 

If  every  claim  on  account  of  over  valuation  should  be  allowed 
in  full — which  is  impossible — the  net  amount  of  revenue  will  be 
the  same  as  the  tax  rate  was  estimated  to  produce,  because  the 
rate  was  computed  on  the  total  of  the  tax  list  less  the  total  of 
all  claims  of  over  valuation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  revenue  will 
be  increased  by  the  proceeds  of  the  tax  levied  on  all  claimed  over 
valuations  which  are  not  allowed  by  the  decisions  rendered. 

In  the  way  proposed,  the  greatest  possible  total  for  the  tax 
list  and  the  lowest  practicable  tax  rate  for  1911  can  be  established 
and  the  work  of  correcting  assessments  will  be  put  into  the  best 
possible  shape  to  be  continued  in  preparing  the  1912  tax  list. 

AN  ENORMOUS  NUMBER  OF  PROTESTS  EXPECTED. 

Under  the  conditions  proposed,  the  percentage  of  increase 
used  to  raise  under-valued  property  to  full  value  should  be  large 
enough  to  raise  the  valuation  of  all  property  valued  at  the  lowest 
percentage  of  full  value  to  full  value.  By  doing  this  it  is  inevitable 
that  the  assessed  value  of  all  property,  excepting  that  originally 
assessed  at  the  lowest  percentage  of  full  value,  will  be  increased 
above  full  value  and  that  such  increase  will  call  forth  an  enormous 
number  of  protests. 

As  compensation  for  the  work  involved  in  hearing  and  render- 
ing a decision  on  each  protest,  the  revenue  of  each  taxing  district 
will  be  increased  by  the  proceeds  of  the  tax  levied  upon  the 
increased  value  added,  by  means  of  the  percentage,  to  every 
parcel  of  property  the  assessed  value  of  which  is  not  protested 
against.  The  tax  levied  on  the  total  amount  of  the  increased 
valuation  made  by  reason  of  the  added  percentage,  less  the  total 
amount  refunded  on  over- valuation  claimed  by  protests,  will  show 
the  amount  of  revenue  gained  by  the  use  of  this  method  of  forcing 
the  tax  list.  It  will  also  show  the  amount  of  tax  paid  by  the 
owners  of  under-valued  property  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
paid  by  other  taxpayers  through  the  increased  tax  rate  that  it 
would  have  been  necessary  to  fix  on  the  total  of  an  under-valued 
tax  list. 


35 


To  indicate  what  this  means  for  the  general  welfare,  and  for 
small  home  owners  in  particular,  reference  will  be  made  to  one 
record  of  an  experience. 

On  January  11,  1909,  Mr.  Frank  B.  Schutz,  the  very  able 
Tax  Commissioner  of  the  City  of  Milwaukee,  called  a meeting 
of  the  city  board  of  assessors  to  devise  ways  and  means  to  obtain 
greater  uniformity  in  making  assessments.  Mr.  Schutz  at  once 
began  agitation  for  a 100%  assessment  as  a means  of  decreasing 
the  possibilities  of  discriminations  in  making  assessments.  As  a 
result,  in  1910  the  increase  in  the  assessed  value  of  one  corporation 
alone  amounted  to  more  than  the  increase  of  assessment  for  the 
entire  Twelfth  Ward — the  ward  containing  the  largest  percentage 
of  small  homes.  The  total  increase  for  the  Second  and  Fourth 
Wards  alone — the  business  wards — was  $2,390,120,  which  is  more 
than  half  of  the  total  increase  of  $4,724,730  for  the  entire  city, 
including  the  homes  of  all  working  men  and  other  small  home 
owners. 

This  sustains  the  statement  previously  made  that  small  home 
owners  have  much  to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose  by  insisting  upon 
full  valuations. 

THE  BURDEN  OF  THE  WORK  MUST  FALL  ON  1911. 

If  a full  valued  tax  list  is  to  result  from  the  quadrennial 
assessment  work  of  1910,  if  the  personal  property  section  of  the 
tax  list  is  to  be  increased  in  1911  by  more  complete  returns 
and  fuller  valuations  induced  by  the  low  tax  rate  made  possible 
by  a full  valuation,  if  the  general  welfare  of  the  state  is  to  be 
promoted  by  a full  valued  tax  list  and  a low  tax  rate  during 
all  the  years  of  the  quadrennial  period  until  1914,  the  heaviest 
part  of  the  burden  of  work  required  to  accomplish  these  desirable 
results  must  fall  on  the  year  1911.  If  this  work  is  not  properly 
done  now  it  will  not  be  properly  done  at  any  time  during  this 
quadrennial  period. 

If  the  work  of  equalization  is  done  this  year  by  a state  board, 
as  it  has  been  done  every  decade  since  the  adoption  of  the  present 
state  constitution,  all  the  disadvantages  of  a horizontal  increase 
or  decrease  will  be  imposed  upon  the  people,  and  all  opportunity 
to  eliminate  inequalities  and  to  establish  justice  will  be  lost. 

36 


Ten  years  ago  valuations  were  equalized  (?)  by  the  state  board 
of  equalization  using  the  horizontal  method  of  increasing  and 
decreasing  valuations.  That  equalization  did  not  correct  a single 
case  of  inequality  between  taxpayers.  It  confirmed  and  fixed 
every  such  inequality  for  ten  years. 

If  the  General  Assembly  permits  the  Tax  Commission  of 
Ohio  to  make  a horizontal  equalization  as  was  done  in  1901, 
every  case  of  inequality  between  taxpayers  covered  by  the  1911 
tax  list,  so  forced  and  fixed,  will  remain  unchanged  during  the 
quadrennial  period  and  until  the  1915  tax  list  is  completed. 
This  may  be  the  easy  way,  but  it  surely  is  not  the  best  way. 
It  will  not  establish  justice.  It  will  not  permit  an  attempt  to 
establish  justice  to  be  made  for  four  years. 


THE  ADVANTAGES  AND  THE  PRESTIGE  OF  A FULL  VALUED  TAX  LIST 
BELONG  TO  1911. 

If  justice  is  worth  having  at  any  time,  it  is  worth  having  now. 
If  it  is  to  be  had  now,  the  cost  of  obtaining  it  must  be  paid  now. 
That  cost  will  be  more  than  made  good  by  the  increase  in  revenue 
derived  from  taxes  paid  by  owners  of  under-valued  property  on 
the  increased  valuation  placed  upon  their  property  in  the  manner 
proposed. 

Ample  safeguards  having  been  provided  to  protect  taxpayers 
from  liability  to  pay  taxes  on  over- valuations,  opposition  to  the 
proposed  method  of  forcing  the  1911  tax  list  can  only  come 
from  those  who  wish  to  continue  to  profit  by  under- valuations, 
as  past  experience  has  taught  them  they  can  do.  They  are  the 
ones  who  have  opposed  every  effort  to  improve  the  taxation 
system  of  Ohio  that  has  been  made  in  the  past.  They  are  the 
ones  who  are  opposing  such  efforts  now. 

Does  any  one  suppose  that  tax  evasion  by  means  of  under- 
valuations would  exist  for  a single  year  if  no  one  was  profiting  by 
it?  Who  can  profit  by  it  except  those  whose  property  is  under- 
valued ? 


37 


The  work  of  stamping  out  the  evil  of  under- valuation,  resulting 
from  the  cupidity  of  some,  the  ignorance,  inexperience  or  corrup- 
tion of  others,  should  be  done  now  to  complete  the  work  of  securing 
a full- valued  tax  list  for  1911,  begun  by  the  enactment  of  the 
quadrennial  assessment  law  of  1909. 

A part  of  the  cost  of  this  work  has  already  been  paid  in  paying 
the  cost  of  the  work  done  by  the  quadrennial  assessors  of  real 
property.  If  advantages  are  to  be  gained  from  establishing  a 
full-valued  tax  list  and  a correspondingly  low  tax  rate,  all  such 
advantages  should  be  gained  for  the  year  1911  so  that  the  people 
may  profit  by  them  during  the  entire  quadrennial  period. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  propositions  herein  made  and  advocated  are  in  line  with 
the  best  work  being  done  throughout  the  United  States  to  improve 
the  administration  of  tax  laws.  When  enacted  into  law  and  prop- 
erly administered,  they  will  place  Ohio  in  the  front  rank  of  pro- 
gressive states  having  improved  taxation  systems.  In  some 
respects  they  will  make  Ohio  a leader  of  states  on  this  subject. 

This  is  the  first  time  an  opportunity  has  been  given  to  propose 
or  enact  the  suggested  changes  in  our  taxation  system.  Never 
before  has  there  been  a State  Tax  Commission  that  could  perform 
the  duties  of  appointment  and  supervision  necessary  to  carry 
the  new  system  to  be  created  into  practical  operation. 

The  opportunity  is  here.  The  need  of  the  system  proposed 
is  urgent.  The  legislation  necessary  to  its  adoption  cannot  be 
enacted  too  quickly. 

I urge  every  citizen  of  the  State,  and  more  especially  every 
member  of  the  General  Assembly  and  every  officer  of  state,  at 
once  to  unite  their  influence  and  efforts,  with  all  others  of  like 
mind,  for  the  quick  accomplishment  of  the  purpose  in  view,  the 
realization  of  the  advantage  of  the  “moral  effect  of  the  assurance 
that  fairness  and  justice  will  rule  with  respect  to  all  taxpayers 
alike  as  an  asset  in  good  government  whose  value  cannot  be 
expressed  in  figures,”  so  graphically  set  forth  and  so  eloquently 
pleaded  for  by  Governor  Harmon  in  his  message  to  the  79th 
General  Assembly. 


38 


More  than  this,  I respectfully  invite  and  urge  every  person 
who  can  do  so  to  make  any  suggestions  he  can  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  measure  that  must  be  enacted  into  law  in  order  to 
adopt  and  carry  the  system  proposed  into  practical  effect. 

The  draft  of  a bill  published  herewith  does  not  completely 
cover  all  of  the  points  discussed  in  this  argument,  nor  is  it 
presumed  that  it  presents  the  measure  in  final  legal  form. 
Valuable  assistance  in  these  respects  is  expected  from  a serious 
discussion  of  the  propositions  herein  advanced  and  advocated. 

To  the  people  of  Ohio  I herein  give  my  best  thought  and 
express  my  most  earnest  desire  for  the  improvement  of  their 
taxation  system;  for  the  establishment  of  justice  between  all 
taxpayers  alike. 


39 


APPENDIX 


A BILL 

To  provide  for  original  assessments  of  real  and  personal  property,  and  for 
the  correction  of  all  original  assessments  of  such  property  by  whom- 
ever made,  and  to  amend  or  repeal  sections  of  the  General  Code  as 
herein  provided. 


section  CONTENTS  OF  SECTIONS. 

NO.  PAGE 

1.  City  boards  of  assessors;  county  assessors;  county  tax  appeal  jury. . 42 

2.  City  boards  of  assessors;  number  of  members;  by  whom  appointed; 

term  of  service 42 

3.  Rules  for  appointing  members  of  city  boards  of  assessors;  for  fixing 

terms  of  service  for  original  appointments,  and  for  filling 
vacancies 42 

4.  City  boards  of  assessors.,  compensation 43 

5.  Sessions  of  city  boards  of  assessors 43 

6.  County  assessors;  how  appointed;  vacancies,  how  filled 43 

7.  County  assessors;  term  of  service;  vacancies  filled  for  unexpired 

term 43 

8.  County  assessors,  compensation 44 

9.  County  assessors,  employment 44 

10.  Bond  and  oath  of  office 44 

11.  Offices  and  boards  abolished,  powers  and  duties  transferred 44 

12.  Offices;  office  furniture  and  supplies;  office  hours 45 

13.  Appointment,  compensation  and  duties  of  Secretary  and  other 

assistants 45 

14.  Traveling  expenses 45 

15.  Payment  of  salaries  of  assessors,  their  secretary  and  other  assist- 

ants  46 

16.  Appointment  and  employment  of  a secretary  and  other  assistants 

may  be  authorized  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio 46 

17.  Organization  of  city  boards  of  assessors;  rules,  regulations  and 

hearings  for  city  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors 47 

18.  Conferences  with  members  of  city  boards  of  assessors  and  county 

assessors 47 

19.  Power  to  administer  oaths,  certify  to  official  acts,  compel  production 

of  books,  accounts,  papers,  records,  documents  and  testimony. . 47 

20.  Jurisdiction  of  city  boards  of  assessors;  powers  and  duties,  and 

instructions  issued  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  shall  be 
identical 47 


40 


section  CONTENTS  OF  SECTIONS. 

NO.  PAGE 

21.  County  auditors  shall  furnish  city  boards  of  assessors,  and  county 

assessors,  with  original  assessment  lists  of  real  and  personal 
property;  returns  made  by  corporations  to  county  auditors  and 
records  of  assessments  and  corrections  made  by  county  auditors 
for  the  years  1910  and  1911 48 

22.  County  auditors  to  furnish  blank  statements  for  listing  personal 

property 48 

23.  Correction  of  assessments  of  real  and  personal  property  made  in  1910 

and  1911 49 

24.  Assessment  and  the  correction  of  assessments  of  all  real  and  personal 

property  during  the  year  1912  and  thereafter 49 

25.  City  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors  may  decrease  or 

increase  the  aggregate  value  of  real  and  personal  property.  ...  50 

26.  Examination  of  property  owners 50 

27.  Date  of  tax  list;  date  for  filing;  date  for  completing  valuations 

date  for  completing  district  tax  list ; date  for  completing 
county  tax  list;  date  for  certifying  county  tax  list  to  county 
treasurer;  dates  taxes  become  due 51 

28.  Notice  to  taxpayers;  hearings 51 

29.  Character  of  statement  to  be  furnished  taxpayers 52 

30.  City  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors  shall  keep  public  rec- 

ord of  all  changes  in  valuation  made  by  tax  appeal  juries,  the 
Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  and  court  of  common  pleas 52 

31.  Taxpayer’s  right  of  protest;  no  protest  can  be  filed  unless  list  has 

been  filed;  notice  of  protest  entered  on  tax  list 52 

32.  Appointment  of  county  tax  appeal  jury 53 

33.  County  tax  appeal  jury;  compensation,  appointment  of  chief  clerk 

and  other  employes;  county  commissioners  provide  office;  may 
hold  sessions  in  any  township,  village  or  city;  court  to  order 
attendance  of  witnesses;  discharge  jury  when  work  is  finished; 
records  to  be  deposited  with  county  auditor 53 

34.  Appeal  from  decision  of  county  tax  appeal  jury  to  the  Tax  Commis- 

sion of  Ohio 54 

35.  Appeal  from  decision  of  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  to  the  common 

pleas  court;  decision  of  that  court  to  be  final 54 

36.  Payment  of  tax;  refund  of  excess 54 

37.  City  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors  shall  defend  assess- 

ments against  protests 55 

38.  Valuations  determined  after  hearing  on  protests  shall  stand  for 

quadrennial  period.  Values  not  so  determined  may  be  corrected 
and  protests  may  be  filed  against  correction;  heard  and  deter- 
mined as  protests  against  original  assessments 55 

39.  Repealing  section 55 


4i 


79th  General  Assembly, 


No.- 


Regular  Session,  1911 


Mr. 


A BILL 

To  provide  for  original  assessments  of  real  and  personal  property,  and  for 
the  correction  of  all  original  assessments  of  such  property  by  whom- 
ever made,  and  to  amend  or  repeal  sections  of  the  General  Code  as 
herein  provided. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Ohio'. 

Section  1.  For  the  purpose  of  assessing  and  correcting 
assessments  of  all  real  and  personal  property  there  is  hereby 
created  a city  board  of  assessors  for  each  city,  and  a county 
assessor  for  each  county,  and  a county  tax  appeal  jury  for  each 
county,  with  powers  and  duties  as  herein  provided. 

Sec.  2.  All  city  boards  of  assessors  shall  consist  of  three 
members  who  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio 
to  serve  for  a term  of  six  years,  except  as  herein  provided. 

Sec.  3.  All  members  of  a board  of  review  for  a municipal 
corporation  in  office  on  the  day  when  this  Bill  becomes  law  whose 
term  of  service  expires  within  the  year  1911  shall  serve  until 
the  second  Monday  in  January,  1912;  all  members  of  such  boards 
whose  term  of  service  expires  within  the  year  1912  shall  serve 
until  the  second  Monday  in  January,  1914;  all  members  of  such 
boards  whose  term  of  service  expires  with  the  year  1913,  or  at 
any  time  thereafter,  shall  serve  until  the  second  Monday  in  Jan- 
uary, 1916,  as  members  of  the  city  board  of  assessors. 

In  appointing  members  of  city  boards  of  assessors,  the  Tax 
Commission  of  Ohio  shall  be  governed  by  the  following  rules : 

First:  All  appointments  made  to  fill  a vacancy  caused  by 
the  expiration  of  a term  of  service  in  the  years  1912,  1914  and 
1916  and  thereafter,  shall  be  made  for  a term  of  six  years. 


42 


Second:  All  appointments  made  to  fill  vacancies  however 
caused,  other  than  by  an  expiration  of  a term  of  service,  shall  be 
filled  for  the  unexpired  term. 

Third:  All  appointments  to  fill  vacancies,  however  caused, 
shall  be  made  from  a list  of  five  eligible  persons  submitted  by  the 
City  Civil  Service  Commissioners  of  the  City  in  which  the  vacancy 
in  the  city  board  of  assessors  occurs. 

Sec.  4.  The  Compensation  pf  all  members  of  city  boards  of 
assessors  shall  be  fixed  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  provided 
that  the  compensation  of  members  of  a board  of  review  for  a 
municipal  corporation,  when  serving  as  members  of  a city  board 
of  assessors  shall  be  the  same  as  they  received  as  members 
of  a board  of  review  of  a municipal  corporation,  and  that 
the  compensation  of  all  members  of  city  boards  of  assessors 
appointed  to  fill  vacancies,  however  caused,  shall  be  the  same  as 
the  compensation  of  the  member  whose  place  in  the  board  is  so 
filled,  until  changed  by  order  of  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  but 
in  no  case  shall  the  compensation  of  any  member  of  a city  board 
of  assessors  be  less  than  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  day  for 
each  day  the  board  is  in  session. 

Sec.  5.  The  date  on  which  the  city  board  of  assessors  for 
each  city  shall  begin  its  regular  session  and  the  number  of  days  it 
shall  remain  in  regular  session  in  each  year  shall  be  fixed  by  the 
Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  and  said  Commission  may  require  any 
city  board  of  assessors  to  convene  and  remain  in  special  session 
on  such  dates  and  for  such  number  of  days  as  it  may  direct. 

Sec.  6.  The  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  shall  appoint  a county 
assessor  for  each  county  on  or  before  the  first  Monday  in  June 
1911,  from  a list  of  five  eligible  persons  submitted  by  the  county 
auditor,  and  shall  fill  all  vacancies  in  the  office  of  county  assessor 
by  appointment  from  a list  of  five  eligible  persons  submitted  by 
the  county  auditor  of  the  county  in  which  such  vacancy  may 
occur. 

Sec.  7.  The  term  of  service  for  all  county  assessors  appointed 
in  1911  shall  begin  with  the  date  of  their  appointment  and  shall 
end  on  the  second  Monday  in  January  1916,  and  thereafter  the 
term  of  all  county  assessors  shall  be  six  years,  beginning  on  the 


43 


second  Monday  in  January  in  the  year  in  which  they  are  appointed. 
All  vacancies,  however  caused,  shall  be  filled  for  the  unexpired 
term. 

Sec.  8.  The  compensation  of  all  county  assessors  shall  be 
fixed  annually  for  each  assessor  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio, 
provided,  that  such  compensation  shall  not  in  any  case  be  less  than 
one  hundred  dollars  per  month. 

Sec.  9.  Each  county  assessor  shall  render  active  service 
for  the  number  of  months  in  each  year  determined  by  the  Tax 
Commission  of  Ohio  and  shall  devote  his  entire  time  to  the  dis- 
charge of  the  duties  of  his  office  during  such  months. 

Sec.  10.  Each  member  of  a city  board  of  assessors  and  each 
county  assessor  shall,  before  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office, 
give  a bond  in  a sum  to  be  fixed  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio, 
payable  to  the  State  of  Ohio,  with  surety  to  the  satisfaction  of 
said  Commission,  prepared  and  approved  as  to  form  by  the  State’s 
Attorney-General,  which  bond,  with  the  oath  of  office  endorsed 
thereon  properly  executed  and  acknowledged,  shall  be  deposited 
for  safe  keeping  with  said  Commission. 

Sec.  11.  The  offices  of  annual  assessor  of  personal  property 
as  provided  in  Section  3349 ; and  of  quadrennial  assessor  of  real 
property  as  provided  in  Section  3365;  all  annual  county  boards 
for  the  equalization  of  real  and  personal  property  as  provided  in 
Section  5580;  all  quadrennial  county  boards  of  equalization  of 
real  property  as  provided  in  Section  5594;  all  quadrennial  county 
boards  for  the  equalization  of  real  property  convened  as  boards 
of  revision  as  provided  in  Sections  5599,  5600  and  5601 ; all  boards 
of  review  for  municipal  corporations  as  provided  in  Section  5618, 
and  all  boards  of  review  for  municipal  corporations  convened  as 
boards  of  equalization  of  real  and  personal  property  and  as  boards 
of  equalization  to  equalize  quadrennial  appraisements  of  real 
property  as  provided  in  Section  5624,  General  Code,  are  hereby 
abolished  and  the  city  boards  of  assessors  and  the  county  assessors 
appointed  by  authority  of  this  act  shall  perform  all  duties,  exercise 
all  the  powers  and  be  subject  to  all  the  liabilities  and  penalties 
devolved,  conferred  or  imposed  by  law  upon  such  officers  and 
boards  within  their  respective  jurisdictions,  and  all  records,  books, 
plat  books,  maps,  documents,  forms,  blanks  and  instructions  of 


44 


every  kind  and  nature  kept  or  used  by  said  assessors  and  boards 
in  the  discharge  of  their  several  duties  shall  be  delivered  by  them 
to  the  city  board  of  assessors  and  the  county  assessor  having 
jurisdiction  over  the  taxing  district  to  which  they  relate,  and 
wherever  in  the  General  Code  the  words  “assessor,”  “assistant 
assessor,”  “township  assessor,”  “ward  assessor”  or  “precinct 
assessor”  are  used,  the  same  shall  be  deemed  to  mean  the  city 
board  of  assessors  or  the  county  assessor,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Sec.  12.  County  commissioners  shall  provide  suitable  office 
rooms,  necessary  office  furniture,  supplies,  books,  maps,  forms  and 
blanks,  not  otherwise  supplied,  in  form  prescribed  by  the  Tax 
Commission  of  Ohio  for  the  use  of  the  city  boards  of  assessors  and 
of  the  county  assessor  holding  office  in  their  respective  counties. 
All  necessary  expenses  for  such  offices  shall  be  audited  and  paid 
as  other  county  expenses  are  audited  and  paid.  Each  city  board 
of  assessors  and  each  county  assessor  shall  occupy  the  offices 
provided  by  the  county  commissioners  and  shall  keep  the  same 
open  for  the  transaction  of  business  during  all  the  business  hours 
of  each  and  every  day,  excepting  Sundays  and  legal  holidays,  as 
required  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio. 

Sec.  13.  Every  city  board  of  assessors  and  every  county 
assessor  is  hereby  authorized  to  appoint,  employ  and  fix  the  com- 
pensation of  a secretary  and  such  number  of  experts,  clerks, 
accountants,  stenographers  and  other  assistants  as  they  may  deem 
necessary,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  county  commissioners 
as  to  number  to  be  employed,  term  of  service  of  the  persons 
employed  and  their  compensation,  to  hold  office  during  the  term 
of  their  employment  subject  to  the  pleasure  of  the  assessor  mak- 
ing the  appointment,  and  shall  perform  such  duties  and  render 
such  services  as  the  board  or  the  assessor  may  prescribe. 

Sec.  14.  Members  of  city  boards  of  assessors,  county  assess- 
ors, their  secretary  and  the  experts,  clerks,  accountants,  steno- 
graphers and  other  assistants  in  their  employ  shall  be  entitled 
to  receive  from  the  county  their  actual  and  necessary  expenses 
while  traveling  on  official  business  required  by  orders  issued  by 
the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio.  Such  expenses  shall  be  itemized 
and  sworn  to  by  the  person  who  incurred  the  expense,  and,  when 


45 


approved  by  the  county  commissioners  as  to  amount,  shall  be 
paid  by  the  county  treasurer  upon  the  warrant  of  the  county 
auditor. 

Sec.  15.  The  salary  of  each  member  of  a city  board  of  assess- 
ors, and  of  each  county  assessor,  and  of  the  secretary,  experts, 
clerks,  accountants,  stenographers  and  other  assistants  appointed 
and  employed  by  them  shall  be  paid  monthly  out  of  the  county 
treasury,  from  the  general  revenue  fund  of  the  county,  when 
approved  as  to  amount  by  the  county  commissioners,  upon  the 
warrant  of  the  county  auditor  upon  the  county  treasurer.  Each 
such  assessor,  secretary,  expert,  clerk,  accountant,  stenographer 
and  other  assistant  shall  make  an  account  in  detail,  giving  the 
date  of  each  day  on  which  he  was  necessarily  engaged  in  the 
performance  of  his  duties  during  the  period  covered  by  the  account, 
and  verify  it  by  oath,  which  the  county  auditor  may  ad- 
minister. 

Sec.  16.  In  case  the  county  commissioners  of  any  county 
shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  authorize  any  city  board  of  assessors, 
or  any  county  assessor  having  jurisdiction  within  their  county  to 
appoint,  employ  and  properly  compensate  a secretary  or  a suffi- 
cient number  of  experts,  clerks,  accountants,  stenographers  and 
other  assistants  to  enable  such  assessors  properly  to  perform  their 
official  duties  and  to  complete  the  work  required  of  them  within 
the  time  specified  by  law  or  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio, 
such  assessors  shall  petition  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  setting 
forth  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  requesting  authority  to  make 
such  appointments.  The  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  shall,  after 
due  investigation,  issue  such  order  as  it  may  deem  proper  in  the 
case.  All  persons  appointed  or  employed  by  a city  board  of 
assessors,  or  a county  assessor,  by  authority  of  the  Tax  Commission 
of  Ohio,  shall  perform  all  the  duties  and  shall  receive  the  compensa- 
tion authorized  from  the  same  source  and  in  the  same  manner 
as  provided  for  the  appointments  or  employment  authorized  and 
approved  by  the  county  commissioners  of  their  respective  counties. 
Each  city  board  of  assessors  shall  organize  by  electing  one  of  its 
members  as  chairman  for  the  current  year  and  the  appointment 
of  a secretary. 


46 


Sec.  17.  Each  city  board  of  assessors  and  each  county 
assessor,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio, 
shall  adopt  reasonable  and  proper  rules  and  regulations  to  govern 
their  proceedings  and  to  regulate  the  mode  and  manner  of  making 
all  corrections  of  real  and  personal  property  assessments,  investi- 
gations, inspections  and  holding  hearings  not  otherwise  specifically 
provided  for.  All  such  rules  and  regulations  shall  be  uniform  for 
all  city  boards  of  assessors,  and  for  all  county  assessors.  All 
proceedings  shall  be  shown  on  a record  of  proceedings,  which 
shall  be  a public  record,  and  in  case  of  city  boards  of  assessors, 
all  voting  shall  be  by  calling  each  member’s  name  by  the  secretary, 
and  each  member’s  vote  shall  be  recorded  as  cast.  Each  county 
assessor  may  hold  hearings  in  any  township  and  village  in  his 
county  at  such  times  and  places  as  he  may  elect. 

Sec.  18.  The  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  may  require  members 
of  city  boards  of  assessors,  and  county  assessors,  to  confer  and 
meet  with  the  members  of  other  city  boards  of  assessors,  and  with 
county  assessors  and  with  said  Commission  on  any  matter  pertain- 
ing to  their  official  duties  at  such  times  and  places  as  may  from 
time  to  time  be  approved  by  said  Commission. 

Sec.  19.  City  boards  of  assessors,  and  county  assessors,  and 
their  secretaries  and  assistants  when  authorized  by  such  assessors 
to  do  so,  shall  have  power,  for  the  purposes  mentioned  in  this  act, 
to  administer  oaths,  certify  to  official  acts,  compel  the  production 
of  books,  accounts,  papers,  records,  documents  and  testimony. 

Sec.  20.  City  boards  of  assessors  shall  have  jurisdiction 
within  the  corporation  limits  of  their  respective  cities,  and  county 
assessors  shall  have  jurisdiction  within  the  limits  of  their  respec- 
tive counties  outside  the  corporate  limits  of  cities,  over  all 
original  assessments  of  real  and  personal  property  situated  within 
their  respective  jurisdictions,  and  over  all  original  corrections  of 
such  assessments  whenever  and  by  whomever  made,  and  shall 
make  original  assessments  of  all  real  and  personal  property  found 
to  have  been  omitted  from  the  tax  list  or  not  otherwise  assessed. 
The  powers  and  duties  of  city  boards  of  assessors  and  of  county 
assessors  to  be  exercised  in  making  original  assessments  and  in 
making  original  corrections  of  assessments  of  all  real  and  personal 


47 


property  situated  within  their  respective  jurisdictions,  and  all 
rules,  orders  and  instructions  issued  to  them  by  the  Tax  Commis- 
sion of  Ohio  in  regard  thereto,  shall  be  identical  in  every  particular. 

Sec.  21.  County  auditors  shall  furnish  to  the  city  boards  of 
assessors,  and  to  the  county  assessor  having  jurisdiction  within 
their  respective  counties,  the  original  assessment  lists  made  by 
quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property ; the  original  lists  of  personal 
property  returned  by  taxpayers  to  personal  property  assessors; 
the  original  assessment  lists  made  by  annual  assessors  of  personal 
property;  the  original  returns  made  by  corporations  to  county 
auditors,  not  originally  assessed  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio, 
and  a record  of  any  original  assessment  of  real  or  personal  property, 
or  of  any  corrections  of  such  assessments  made  by  the  county 
auditor  for  the  years  1910  and  1911,  with  such  maps,  returns, 
lists,  abstracts  and  other  papers  as  may  be  in  the  auditor’s  office 
pertinent  to  the  property  situated  within  their  respective  juris- 
dictions and  to  the  efficient  performance  of  their  duties. 

Sec.  22.  On  or  before  the  second  Monday  in  January  1912, 
and  each  year  thereafter,  the  county  auditor  of  each  county  shall 
furnish  to  each  city  board  of  assessors,  and  to  the  county  assessor 
within  his  county,  all  necessary  blank  forms  of  statement  for 
listing  personal  property,  moneys,  credits,  investments  in  bonds, 
stocks,  joint  stock  companies,  or  otherwise,  containing  all  the 
items  necessary  to  secure  accurate,  full  and  honest  returns  and 
valuations  for  taxation  and  all  other  blank  forms  necessary  for 
the  proper  performance  of  their  official  duties ; all  such  blanks  shall 
be  in  the  form  approved  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio.  All 
blank  forms  of  statement  for  listing  personal  property,  moneys, 
credits,  investments  in  bonds,  stocks,  joint  stock  companies,  or 
otherwise,  required  by  law,  shall  contain  two  columns  in  which  to 
enter  the  true  value  in  money  of  each  item  of  property  listed. 
Entries  shall  be  made  in  the  first  column  by  the  owner  of  the 
property,  showing  his  statement  of  the  value  of  the  property. 
Entries  shall  be  made  in  the  second  column  by  the  assessor, 
showing  his  statement  of  the  value  of  the  property  as  assessed  by 
him  for  taxation.  City  boards  of  assessors,  county  assessors  and 
all  persons,  partnerships  and  corporations  required  to  list  all 


48 


t 


or  any  of  the  items  scheduled  in  such  statements,  shall  use  true 
copies  of  such  blank  statements  and  fill  them  with  the  true  value 
in  money  of  the  several  items  therein  named. 

Sec.  23.  City  boards  of  assessors,  and  county  assessors  shall 
on  the  first  Monday  in  June  1911,  assume  all  duties  of  quadrennial 
assessors  of  real  property  and  of  annual  assessors  of  personal 
property,  and  shall  complete  any  work  pertaining  to  the  same 
then  remaining  unfinished,  and  they  shall  also  assume  the  duties 
of  all  boards  of  review  and  of  equalization  within  their  respective 
jurisdictions,  in  whatever  condition  then  found  in  the  proceedings 
of  such  boards  and  shall  thereafter  complete  all  work  required 
for  the  fulfillment  of  such  duties.  City  boards  of  assessors,  and 
county  assessors,  shall  examine  and  correct  the  lists  of  property 
and  assessment  made  by  quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property, 
by  annual  assessors  of  personal  property  and  by  county  auditors 
for  the  years  1910  and  1911,  of  all  real  and  personal  property 
situated  within  their  respective  jurisdictions  to  see  if  all  assess- 
ments have  been  made  at  true  value  in  money  of  the  property 
assessed,  and  in  case  they  find  such  lists  to  be  erroneous,  either 
in  the  amount  of  property  assessed  to  any  person,  partnership  or 
corporation,  or  in  the  value  given  to  any  item  of  property  by  any 
such  assessor,  they  shall  correct  such  lists  by  placing  thereon  any 
omitted  property  discovered  by  them  and  giving  to  such  property, 
as  well  as  to  any  property  that  has  been  listed  but  incorrectly 
assessed,  the  true  value  in  money  thereof,  and  by  omitting  property 
improperly  listed. 

Sec.  24.  During  the  year  1912,  and  each  year  thereafter, 
city  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors  shall  assess  all 
personal  property  situated  within  their  respective  jurisdictions, 
and  shall  assess  all  real  property  discovered  by  them  to  have  been 
omitted  by  the  quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property.  They 
shall  also  correct  all  quadrennial  assessments  of  real  property  not 
confirmed  for  the  quadrennial  period  as  provided  in  this  act,  and 
shall  increase  the  assessment  of  any  parcel  of  real  property  on 
account  of  new  structures  erected  thereon;  or  decrease  the  assess- 
ment of  any  parcel  of  real  property  on  account  of  the  destruction 
of  any  structure  situated  thereon  since  the  assessment  made  by 


49 


the  quadrennial  assessor  of  real  property.  In  the  pr  "formance 
of  their  duties  they  shall  faithfully  administer  all  lawo  for  listing 
and  assessing  real  and  personal  property,  so  far  as  such  laws  are 
applicable  to  their  work,  and  shall  be  governed  in  the  performance 
of  their  duties  by  all  rules,  orders  and  instructions  issued  to  them 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio. 

Sec.  25.  In  reaching  a determination  of  the  true  value  in 
money  of  all  real  and  personal  property  situated  within  their 
respective  jurisdictions,  city  boards  of  assessors  and  county 
assessors  may  reduce  the  aggregate  valuation  of  real  and  personal 
property  below  the  aggregate  valuation  thereof  as  returned  by 
quadrennial  assessors  of  real  property  and  annual  assessors  of 
personal  property,  or  by  county  auditors,  or  below  the  aggregate 
valuation  for  the  preceding  year ; or,  they  may  increase  the  aggre- 
gate valuation  of  real  and  personal  property  above  the  aggregate 
valuation  thereof  as  returned  by  quadrennial  assessors  of  real 
property  and  annual  assessors  of  personal  property  or  by  county 
auditors,  or  above  the  aggregate  valuation  for  the  preceding 
year;  or,  they  may  leave  such  aggregate  valuation  unchanged. 

Sec.  26.  A member  of  a city  board  of  assessors,  or  any  county 
assessor  shall  have  power  to  administer  oaths,  issue  subpoenas, 
compel  attendance  of  witnesses  and  the  production  of  books, 
accounts,  papers,  records,  documents  and  the  giving  of  testimony. 
They  shall  have  power  to  call  any  person  before  them  and  to  exam- 
ine him  under  oath  regarding  any  or  all  real  or  personal  property, 
listed  or  that  should  be  listed  for  taxation,  and  the  true  value  in 
money  thereof,  and  said  assessors  shall  correct  the  taxable  value 
of  such  property,  after  hearing  such  evidence,  in  such  manner 
as  in  their  judgement  they  deem  necessary. 

In  case  of  disobedience  on  the  part  of  any  person  or  persons 
to  comply  with  any  order  of  a city  board  of  assessors,  or  of  a 
county  assessor,  or  any  subpoena,  or  a refusal  of  any  witness  to 
be  sworn  or  to  testify  to  any  matter  regarding  which  he  may 
lawfully  be  interrogated  before  a city  board  of  assessors  or  a 
county  assessor,  as  provided  in  this  act,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of 
the  court  of  common  pleas  of  the  county  in  which  the  property 
which  is  the  subject  of  inquiry  is  situated,  or  a judge  thereof, 
on  application  of  a city  board  of  assessors  or  of  a county  assessor 


50 


to  compel  obedience  by  attachment  proceedings  for  contempt  as 
in  case  of  disobedience  of  the  requirements  of  a subpoena  issued 
from  such  court  or  a refusal  to  testify  therein. 

Sec.  27.  All  real  and  personal  property,  other  than  property 
originally  assessed  by  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  shall  be 
listed  and  valued  for  taxation  on  the  first  Monday  in  April  in 
each  year;  all  lists  of  property  required  to  be  made  by  property 
owners  shall  be  made  and  filed  with  the  city  board  of  assessors, 
or  the  county  assessor  within  whose  jurisdiction  such  property 
is  situated  on  or  before  the  first  Monday  in  May  of  each  year; 
the  assessed  value  of  all  real  and  personal  property  listed  for 
taxation  shall  be  compiled  by  city  boards  of  assessors  and 
by  county  assessors  within  whose  jurisdiction  such  property 
is  situated  on  the  first  Monday  in  June  in  each  year;  the  tax 
list  for  each  taxing  district  within  their  respective  jurisdic- 
tions shall  be  compiled  by  city  boards  of  assessors  and  by  county 
assessors  and  filed  with  the  county  auditor  on  or  before  the  first 
Monday  in  July  in  each  year.  Such  tax  lists  shall  be  true 
statements  of  all  real  and  personal  property  listed  for  taxation 
situated  within  each  taxing  district,  and  shall  be  used  by  taxing 
authorities  of  each  such  district  for  the  computation  of  the  tax 
rates  to  be  levied  on  all  property  in  such  district  for  the  current 
year,  and  such  list  shall  stand  as  the  tax  list  of  such  taxing 
district,  and  shall  not  thereafter  be  corrected  or  changed  during 
the  current  year  excepting  as  ordered  by  a decision  of  the 
county  tax  appeal  jury,  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  or  the 
common  pleas  court. 

Sec.  28.  City  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors  shall 
give  notice  to  taxpayers  by  advertisement,  published  in  papers 
selected  by  the  county  auditor,  in  first  issue  following  the  first 
Monday  in  June  in  each  year  stating  that  the  valuation  of  all 
real  and  personal  property  listed  for  taxation  has  been  completed ; 
that  a statement  showing  how  property  listed  in  his  name  had  been 
valued  for  taxation  will  be  mailed  to  any  taxpayer  applying  for 
the  same  and  enclosing  a two-cent  stamp  for  return  postage,  and 
that  all  protests  against  the  valuations  assessed  will  be  heard  if 
filed  with  the  city  board  of  assessors,  or  the  county  assessor, 
furnishing  the  statement,  during  the  month  of  June  and  that 


5i 


corrections  of  assessments  cannot  be  made  during  the  current 
year  unless  a protest  against  the  same  is  filed  with  the  assessor 
within  the  month  of  June. 

Sec.  29.  The  statement  provided  for  in  this  act  to  be  fur- 
nished taxpayers  on  their  request  showing  assessed  valuations  of 
all  real  and  personal  property  shall,  in  case  of  real  property, 
describe  the  real  property  by  the  description  thereof  on  the  tax 
list  for  the  current  year,  stating  the  valuation  of  the  land 
and  of  the  structures  or  improvements  thereon  separately,  and 
the  name  of  the  taxpayer  in  which  it  is  assessed.  In  the  case  of 
personal  property  the  statement  shall  show  only  the  name  of  the 
taxpayer  and  the  total  amount  of  personal  property  assessed  in 
his  name.  The  contents  of  lists  of  personal  property,  subscribed 
and  sworn  to  by  taxpayers  and  filed  with  city  boards  of  assessors, 
and  with  county  assessors,  shall  not  be  disclosed  or  made 
public  excepting  as  may  be  made  necessary  in  hearing  evidence 
for  the  correction  of  the  same. 

Sec.  30.  Each  city  board  of  assessors  and  each  county 
assessor  shall  keep  a public  record  of  every  change  made  in  the 
valuation  of  any  real  or  personal  property  situated  in  any  taxing 
district  within  their  jurisdiction,  after  the  certification  of  the 
tax  list  for  such  district,  showing  by  what  authority  the  change 
was  ordered  and  giving  a citation  to  the  record  of  facts  upon 
which  such  change  in  valuation  was  based. 

Sec.  31.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  taxpayer  to  co-operate 
with  and  assist  city  boards  of  assessors  and  county  assessors  in 
the  work  of  obtaining  a complete  list  of  all  real  and  personal 
property  situated  within  their  respective  jurisdictions  and  in 
assessing  the  same  at  its  true  value  in  money. 

Any  taxpayer  who  fails  or  refuses  to  file  with  the  city  board  of 
assessors,  or  the  county  assessor,  of  the  city  or  county  within 
which  property  owned  by  him  is  situated,  on  or  before  the  first 
Monday  in  May  in  each  year,  a list  of  all  such  property,  real  and 
personal,  subscribed  and  sworn  to  as  required  by  law,  shall  not 
be  entitled  to  file  any  protest  thereafter  as  to  the  valuation  at 
which  any  part  or  all  of  his  property  is  assessed. 

Any  taxpayer  who  files  with  the  city  board  of  assessors,  or 
with  the  county  assessor,  on  or  before  the  first  Monday  in  May, 


52 


a complete  list  of  all  real  and  personal  property  owned  by  him 
and  situated  within  the  jurisdiction  of  such  assessor,  duly  sub- 
scribed and  sworn  to  as  required  by  law,  may,  on  or  before  the 
first  Monday  in  July  following  file  with  such  assessor  a protest 
against  the  valuation  for  taxation  placed  upon  any  part  or  all  of 
his  property.  Every  such  protest  shall  show  the  character  and 
location  of  the  property,  the  taxable  value  of  which  is  protested 
against,  and  contain  a statement  of  facts  showing  why  the  assess- 
ment is  too  high  and  the  amount  of  the  over- valuation  claimed. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  city  board  of  assessors  and  of 
every  county  assessor  to  enter  on  the  tax  list  for  each  taxing 
district  compiled  by  them  a statement,  in  the  case  of  each  valua- 
tion protested  against,  showing  the  fact  that  a protest  has  been 
filed  and  the  amount  of  over- valuation  claimed. 

Sec  32.  The  judges  of  the  common  pleas  court  having  juris- 
diction shall  appoint  a county  tax  appeal  jury  for  each  county, 
consisting  of  three  members.  Such  jury  shall  take  office  on  the 
first  Monday  in  July  in  each  year  and  shall  be  in  session  daily 
thereafter  until  discharged.  They  shall  make  a report  to  the 
judge  of  the  common  pleas  court  by  whom  they  were  appointed 
on  the  Saturday  of  each  week  showing  the  number  of  protests 
unheard  at  the  beginning  of  the  week  and  the  number  on  which 
a decision  was  rendered  during  the  week.  As  soon  as  every 
protest  has  been  heard  and  a decision  thereon  has  been  rendered, 
the  jury  shall  be  discharged. 

Sec.  33.  Each  member  of  a county  tax  appeal  jury  shall 
receive  compensation  for  each  and  every  day  they  are  in  session, 
of  not  to  exceed  ten  dollars  per  diem,  which  shall  be  determined 
by  the  judge  making  the  appointments.  Each  such  jury  shall 
select  its  own  foreman,  shall  appoint  a chief  clerk  and  employ 
such  clerks,  stenographers  and  other  assistants  as  it  may  deem 
necessary,  and  fix  their  compensation  subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  judges  of  the  common  pleas  court. 

The  county  commissioners  of  each  county  shall  provide 
suitable  furnished  office  rooms  in  which  such  jury  shall  hold 
sessions,  but  the  jury  may  hold  sessions  in  a township,  village  or 
city  in  which  any  property  is  situated  against  the  assessed  value 
of  which  a protest  has  been  filed.  The  compensation  of  the 


53 


members  of  the  jury  and  of  its  chief  clerk  and  employes,  together 
with  all  necessary  expenses  incurred  by  it  and  all  traveling  expenses 
incurred  by  the  jury  and  its  employes  when  absent  from  the 
county  seat  for  the  purpose  of  holding  sessions  in  any  township, 
village  or  city  in  their  county,  shall  be  paid  monthly  out  of  county 
frnids  by  the  county  treasurer  on  an  order  approved  by  the  judges 
of  the  common  pleas  court  on  the  warrant  of  the  county  auditor. 
Upon  request  of  the  jury,  the  court  of  common  pleas  shall  issue 
orders  to  compel  the  attendance  and  the  giving  of  testimony 
by  witnesses  and  all  proceedings  before  the  jury  shall  be  conducted 
according  to  the  rules  and  regulations  governing  the  proceedings 
and  business  of  common  pleas  courts.  When  a jury  has  finished 
its  work  it  shall  so  report  to  the  judges  of  the  common  pleas  court 
by  which  it  was  appointed  and  that  court  shall  thereupon  discharge 
the  jury  and  order  its  records  deposited  with  the  county  auditor. 

Sec.  34.  In  case  a taxpayer  is  dissatisfied  with  the  decision 
of  the  county  tax  appeal  jury,  he  shall  have  the  right  to  appeal 
from  that  decision  to  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  provided  such 
appeal  is  made  within  thirty  days  after  the  decision  of  the  county 
tax  appeal  jury  is  rendered. 

Sec.  35.  In  case  a taxpayer  is  dissatisfied  with  the  decision 
of  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  he  shall  have  the  right  to  appeal 
from  that  decision  to  the  court  of  common  pleas  having  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  county  in  which  the  property  is  located,  the  valua- 
tion of  which  is  protested  against.  The  decision  of  the  common 
pleas  court  shall  be  final. 

Sec.  36.  In  case  the  tax  assessed  upon  property  against  the 
valuation  of  which  a protest  has  been  filed  becomes  due  before  a 
decision  on  such  protest  has  been  rendered  and  accepted  by  the 
taxpayer,  or  a final  decision  has  been  rendered  by  a court  of 
common  pleas,  the  owner  of  the  property  shall  pay  the  full  amount 
of  the  tax  as  assessed.  In  case  the  decision  of  the  county  tax 
appeal  jury,  or  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio,  or  of  the  common 
pleas  court,  is  in  his  favor,  the  authority  rendering  the  decision  shall 
issue  to  him  an  order  on  the  county  auditor  for  a refund  of  the 
hill  amount  of  tax  paid  on  the  excess  valuation,  with  interest 

the  rate  of  six  per  cent,  per  annum  from  the  date  of  tax 
payment  to  date  of  refund  together  with  an  allowance  on 


54 


account  of  costs  and  expenses  incurred  in  prosecuting  his  claim, 
amount  of  said  allowance  to  be  determined  by  the  authority  issu- 
ing the  order. 

Sec.  37.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  city  board  of  assessors, 
or  of  the  county  assessor,  to  defend  the  assessments  made  by  them 
against  every  protest  alleging  over-valuation  before  the  county 
tax  appeal  jury,  the  Tax  Commission  of  Ohio  and  the  common 
pleas  court,  and  to  this  end  they  shall  have  the  same  right  of  appeal 
provided  for  taxpayers  in  Sections  34  and  35  of  this  act. 

Sec.  38.  The  valuation  of  all  real  property  when  determined 
by  a decision  of  a county  tax  appeal  jury,  the  Tax  Commission  of 
Ohio,  or  a court  of  common  pleas  shall  remain  unchanged  during 
the  quadrennial  period  ending  with  the  year  1914,  excepting 
the  value  of  new  structures  may  be  added  and  the  value  of  struc- 
tures destroyed  may  be  deducted  by  city  boards  of  assessors  and 
by  county  assessors  as  provided  in  this  act,  and  the  value  of  any 
parcel  of  real  estate,  with  the  structures  and  improvements  thereon, 
not  finally  determined  by  such  authority  may  be  corrected  by 
by  such  assessors  in  any  year  as  provided  in  this  act  for  the  cor- 
rection of  original  assessments,  but  such  corrections  may  be  pro- 
tested against  and  such  protests  shall  be  heard  and  determined  as 
provided  in  this  act  for  the  hearing  and  final  determination  of 
protests  against  original  assessments. 

Sec.  39.  That  all  acts  and  sections  of  the  General  Code  in 
conflict  with  the  provisions  of  this  act  and  said  original  Sections 
3349,  3365,  5404,  5405,  5580,  5591,  5593,  5594,  5599,  5600,  5601, 
5618  and  5624  of  the  General  Code  be  and  the  same  are  hereby 
repealed. 


55 


